A week after vandals forced the closing of Evelyn Williams Elementary School another school, Ricardo Richards Elementary School, was hit by vandals over the weekend.
Saturday morning principal Maria Matthew discovered vandals had destroyed nine doors in the school and spread paint, sugar and oil on walls, floors and chalkboards. The vandals also stole the main data computer and telephones from the school.
Six classrooms, two guidance counselors' offices, the main office, the teachers lounge and the nurses station were all damaged in the break-in.
Matthew, who has been at the school for 16 years, told the Source as the day went by she was finding more and more items were missing.
Among the missing items were bicycle pumps, pencils, t-shirts, gym pants and gloves from the nurse's station, she said.
Matthew said the school has only had one other incident of vandalism in all the years she's been there.
:"We are a community-based school. The neighbors feel like we belong to them and we always feel like they are our eyes and ears," she said.
The school houses 617 students, in 21 classrooms, in grades kindergarten through sixth grade.
Matthew said it had not yet been determined how the vandals entered the school, but doors were kicked in to gain entrance to the damaged classrooms and offices.
Deputy Insular Superintendent Lionel Sewpershad asked for help from the community in safeguarding the schools.
A release from the Education Department also said vandals had again entered Evelyn Williams over the weekend and defecated in two classrooms.
"Resources are so very limited," Matthew said. This kind of damage puts "a dent in what we can offer our students."
Ricardo Richards did not have to be closed because of the vandalism.
