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Schools
Crime flurry strikes Pasco schools
By THOMAS LAKE
Published January 3, 2007
Blue paint sullied the scoreboard by the football field at Land O'Lakes High School on Tuesday morning. The intruder had sprayed a message: "Redneck USA." Pride? Scorn? The artist's intentions were as mysterious as his identity. But authorities knew this: His unscheduled exhibit was part of a new year's flurry of campus crime. Six public schools in Pasco County were burglarized or vandalized over the holiday weekend, sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said. No arrests had been reported by the close of business Tuesday, and it was not known whether the crimes were related. But the prevailing modus operandi suggested that at least some of the culprits were children or teenagers. At Seven Springs Elementary School in New Port Richey, someone got into the cafeteria and swiped a Sony PlayStation. At Wesley Chapel High School, burglars broke into seven portable buildings, grabbed an Apple computer and fled through the woods on stolen golf carts. The burglars also hit Gulf High School in New Port Richey, broke a glass door at Cotee River Elementary School in New Port Richey and ransacked an office at Fox Hollow Elementary School in Port Richey. The Fox Hollow burglars propped open a door with an umbrella. School burglaries are a growing problem in Pasco County, Tobin said. About 15 have been reported in the past two months. The River Ridge high school/middle school complex east of New Port Richey was hit 19 times last year, more often than any other school in the county. Sometimes the culprits are adults seeking cash or valuables. But other times it's just students. Authorities are still trying to figure out which group fits in the Land O'Lakes vandalism case. But a 2005 paper written for the Justice Department by crime consultant Kelly Dedel Johnson may speak to the reasoning behind it. Ideological vandalism, she says, is oriented toward a social or political cause. Redneck USA? A rallying cry, perhaps. Or the work of somebody on holiday, bored out of their skull. Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.
[Last modified January 3, 2007, 06:30:08]
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