Vandals broke into a South Los Angeles elementary school for the sixth time since July over the weekend, causing an estimated $115,000 in damages and adding to a steady toll of recent losses due to theft and vandalism in the L.A. Unified School District.
This semester alone there have been 171 incidents of burglary and vandalism in the nation’s second-largest school system, with Wadsworth Elementary, the site of a Monday news conference, especially hard hit. Districtwide the damage is in the millions of dollars annually, officials said, although they did not release specific figures.
L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho conceded it was a problem that the school system would typically avoid highlighting.
“We don’t want negative news, right?” Carvalho said. “We don’t necessarily talk about it, but to target, burglarize, vandalize, steal from poor schools — that is reprehensible. So I want to make sure that the community would know about it, and hopefully somebody provides information.”