Tuesday, April 28, 2009

At a time when Kansas schools are already struggling with budget cuts, a thoughtless vandal or vandals has made matters worse for Ark City's Middle School students and the district's taxpayers.

"Basically the same thing was done on each one of these computers. They've taken a hammer and struck once or twice in certain cases to crack the screens,” said Ron Young, Arkansas City School’s Director of Technology.

In all, 25 Apple Macintosh computers were damaged. They were all in one of the school’s eighth grade computer labs. The damage was discovered Sunday.

Police believe the vandalism occurred late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

One juvenile, a middle school student, is in custody following police questioning. That boy could be charged as a juvenile with burglary and criminal damage.

Some of the most recent work stored on the computers will be lost, but not all of it.

The students were able to start working again immediately. The school district had new computers on hand to be installed in an elementary school for classes in the fall. Instead, they are being put in the middle school. The damage and loss is estimated between $25,000 and $30,000.

Police are investigating to see if others might be involved. The computers were insured, though, it’s still a burden on the taxpayers who will ultimately pay to replace the equipment.