THIEVES STEAL FUTURE FROM SCHOOLKIDS.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
That was some ``Welcome Back to School, Kids!'' the students over at Haskell (language) Haskell - (Named after the logician Haskell Curry) A lazy purely functional language largely derived from Miranda but with several extensions. Haskell was designed by a committee from the functional programming community in April 1990. Avenue Elementary School elementary school: see school. in Granada Hills got Monday. The Mac computers in their classrooms had been stolen - 26 in all - along with the school's walkie talkies, fax machines, printers, and a shopping list of items the teachers rely on to help them do their jobs. The lowlifes who stole them had cut through the schoolyard fence, drove a truck onto the school grounds and took their sweet time emptying the classrooms in this neighborhood school a few weekends ago. ``The rooms reeked with cigarette smoke,'' said principal Elayne Elsky. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why they picked on us. We're a school.'' The kids hadn't even warmed their new desk seats Monday and the principal was already sending a flier home to parents to see if they could help out in replacing the stolen computers. Deborah Leidner, superintendent of District A, which encompasses the Granada Hills school, has offered the school 26 surplus computers to use until they get new ones. But they are surplus computers for a reason. They've seen better days. ``Some of our parents have offered us their old computers, too, but our kids deserve the best, not used computers that will be breaking down on them,'' Elsky said. The principal's right. The students at Haskell shouldn't be penalized pe·nal·ize tr.v. pe·nal·ized, pe·nal·iz·ing, pe·nal·iz·es 1. To subject to a penalty, especially for infringement of a law or official regulation. See Synonyms at punish. 2. because some lowlifes decided to steal the good stuff. When she returned to her office Wednesday morning from making her rounds of the classrooms, Elsky found three checks on her desk and promises of more parent support on the way. The Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. is self-insured self-insured Self fund Health insurance adjective Referring to the practice of carrying an individual health insurance policy for oneself; self insurance is usually more expensive than group insurance , so it doesn't have ``an infinite amount of money to replace stolen property,'' Leidner said. ``The chances of getting the money to replace the computers at the beginning of the school year, though, are a lot better than if they were stolen at the end of the year.'' But it will take time to replace the stolen computers, and time is what kids trying to stay ahead of the curve don't have, said LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) board member Jon Lauritzen. As a former math/computer teacher at Canoga Park High School Canoga Park High School is a public school located in Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, USA, within the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is located right across the street from the Topanga Plaza shopping center. , he also knew a lot of the items stolen from those classrooms had come directly from the teacher's pocketbooks and wouldn't be replaced by the district. ``This kind of major theft is like cutting off a teacher's arm,'' Lauritzen said. Pam Estrada, who has two daughters at the school, sat them down Monday night and explained what was going on. ``I was livid livid /liv·id/ (liv´id) discolored, as from a contusion or bruise; black and blue. liv·id adj. when I saw what had happened,'' she said. ``I explained to my daughters that some bad people had broken into their school and stolen the things their teachers need to teach them. ``One of my daughters said, 'Mommy, that's not fair! It's our stuff.' It's difficult for them to understand.'' Hey, it's difficult for adults to understand how people can get so low as to scrape See scraping. the bottom of the barrel and steal from an elementary kid's education. ``These were pros - they knew exactly what they were taking,'' Leidner said. ``Things like this happen in cycles, and what would be most helpful for us is if people kept an eye out for their neighborhood school when it was closed. These people drove a truck through a fence they had to cut through, and no one saw anything? ``If there's a school in your neighborhood, keep an eye on it when its closed, because bottom line, it's kids they're stealing from.'' P.J. Webb, spokesman for LAUSD's school police force, said the district's special problems unit was investigating the theft, which has possible links to other school burglaries in the Valley. ``Some suspects have been identified, but that's all I can say right now,'' Webb said. If anyone is interested in helping Haskell Avenue replace the items stolen, call principal Elsky at (818) 366-6431. Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Sue Wallander, magnet coordinator, shows what's left after Macintosh computers were stolen from Haskell Elementary School in Granada Hills. Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer |
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