Investigators are looking into a theft at a San Diego school that erased two years of fundraising to purchase computer technology for students. Parents at River Glen School have spent the last two years writing grant applications and sponsoring fundraisers. The idea was to purchase laptop computers and tablet devices for students.
The school has an enrollment of around 550 students, and currently has approximately 60 laptops and 30 tablets for use by these students. Some of the machines are starting to age, and as a result they needed replacement.
As a result, parents groups solicited donations and held fundraising events. They also applied for grants in order to generate sufficient funds to order computers.
Now the school's principal is working along side the San Jose police in order to locate around $70,000 of laptops and tablets that were stolen from the school. As the value of the machines falls below the district's deductible they cannot be replaced immediately.
Following district procedures, the principle filed an online report with the police rather than calling one in. Police said that this online option is intended for problems involving various types of property crimes. A day after the report was filed on October 28 police assigned the case over to the San Jose burglary unit.
A day after that they reassigned the case to the school liaison unit. The school feels that this kind of crime primarily hurts students, who would otherwise have little opportunity to work with this kind of technology. They also mentioned that the theft was major considering that the parents and school district had to dip into reserves in order to purchase this equipment.
Police have not yet released any suspects or motives for the crime. It may be a bit difficult to believe that such a crime could be one of opportunity, as schools do not leave these kinds of tools merely lying around. While there is no cause for speculation yet, the thief may have had to have some sort of knowledge about where the school was storing these supplies and how they were being stored.