Vandals target school again

Several classrooms are damaged but nothing valuable is stolen from Tarpon Springs Elementary.

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 3, 2000

TARPON SPRINGS -- For the second time in a month, vandals broke into Tarpon Springs Elementary School over the weekend and damaged several classrooms.

They broke in Sunday night or Monday morning by pushing in a window at the school, police said. They wrote on a table with lipstick, shattered glass measuring cups on the floor and broke a Magic School Bus computer disc.

Sometime between July 8 and July 10, vandals also broke into the school. They sprayed fire extinguishers in several classrooms and sprayed blue paint throughout the school, police said.

They wrote "I love Jeffrey" on a chalkboard and on a piece of cardboard, and they left lipstick marks on plastic cups. They also took several packages of cookies from a box during that first incident. Police have no suspects.

Both times, the vandals broke windows and made a mess, but they did not appear to steal anything valuable.

"It looks like they had a party in one of the rooms," principal George Tosh said.

But, he said, computers and other valuables were locked up in a secured storage place.

"My concern is when the school year starts and we have the computers in the classroom," Tosh said. "They've gotten in twice already."

Tosh said it sounded like children had caused the damage.

But he doesn't think the vandals were Tarpon Springs Elementary students.

"I have a great student body," he said.

- Staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4205 or at gazella@sptimes.com.

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