BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE recent spate of primary schools around St. Kitts being vandalised continued over the holiday weekend as the Dean Glasford Primary School in St. Peters was broken into.
According to Principal Elsie Patrick-Leader, the school was locked and fully secured on Friday (May 1) around 6:00 p.m., but staff discovered the main office broken into when they returned to the grounds this morning (May 5) for classes.
“You can see where they sawed off the locks to the burglar bars and used a crowbar to pry the main door open,” the Principal said as she showed SKNVibes the shattered doorjamb.
Upon entering the office, the thieves stole a cellular phone, a large number of trophies, framed photos of the Prime Minister and the coat-of-arms as well as a key-ring with keys to the various rooms on the grounds.
The Principal said that the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force was immediately contacted to carry out investigations. She also stated that the Ministry of Public Works planned to replace the locks on all of the buildings today to make the stolen keys useless.
SKNVibes spoke to Senior Teacher Jean Boddie, who said that she was confounded why anybody would break into the school when there was nothing of value to steal.
“I wouldn’t know of the motive because I always wonder what thieves want with a school. If you are in a community it will upset the children and families,” Boddie said. “Why would someone steal trophies? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Unfortunately for the school, the break-in is only one in a long line in the history of the facility.
“Only recently we finished litigation on another thief that broke into the school and stole some money in October of last year,” Leader informed.
The attack on Dean Glasford Primary makes two schools within a one-month period that have been subjected to thieves and vandals, with the Estridge Primary school having several parts of its property defaced or destroyed on April 12.
In the latter part of 2008, the Tucker-Clarke Primary School in Newtown also had several of its windows shattered and classrooms overturned.
While the Police Force continues to investigate these incidents, the Ministry of Education has issued a statement encouraging “increased vigilance of the general public in communities close to schools, and requested that any suspicious activity observed around school buildings be immediately reported to the nearest police station”.
