SENSELESS DAMAGE SCHOOL VANDALS WASTE $20,300.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Vandals broke into Piute Middle School over the weekend and smashed windows in 10 classrooms and a computer lab, splattered paint, damaged classroom equipment and emptied fire extinguishers, causing an estimated $20,300 in damage.

Lancaster School District officials said they will meet with sheriff's deputies to talk about increasing after-school patrols at the campus, which has been previously hit by burglars.

``We have had a number of break-ins at the site, but those have all been theft. We haven't had this kind of vandalism,'' said Scott Smith, director of pupil safety and attendance.

``It certainly causes a morale problem. And there's a logistical problem with not being able to use those classrooms. They've got their hands full. They had to utilize other space that is not normally used for classrooms,'' Smith said.

Piute Middle School is on a year-round schedule, and classes began on July 10. There already was some disarray on campus from modernization construction.

The break-in is believed to have occurred sometime between Friday night and Sunday morning at the campus in the 400 block of East Avenue H-11, a sheriff's report says.

A school employee who came into work Sunday discovered the damage and called sheriff's deputies. She at first noticed the window to the computer lab was smashed and then checked other classrooms and found more broken windows.

The employee looked into the classrooms and saw that they had been ransacked and vandalized, authorities said.

From one classroom, the intruders also stole snack boxes containing CornNuts, Snickers and Skittles; four bottles of Gatorade; a bag of candy; four calculators; and three laptop computer bags, with a total value of $209.

All the rooms except the computer lab were also ransacked. Contents of file cabinets, other cabinets and desks were scattered about the rooms, according to the sheriff's report.

Paint was splattered on walls, carpet, ceilings, desks and computers in two rooms, and fire extinguishers were emptied onto contents of three other rooms.

In one room, the word ``slob'' was written on a table in paint. That derogatory slang word is often aimed at a member of the Bloods street gang, the report says.

Three desktop computers were torn apart and possibly had components stolen from them. In another room, a television had been knocked off its stand, and its case was cracked.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Assistant Principal Andy Glatfelter looks with disgust Monday at damage done by weekend vandals at Piute Middle School in Lancaster.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News