Anchorage Daily News

$200,000 vandalism bill

Computers and monitors destroyed

Fish and butterflies killed

Fire extinguishers discharged

Windows smashed

Bookshelves tipped over, broken

Paint and food spread everywhere

WILLOW -- "They should be here cleaning," said Virginia Smith, a kindergarten and second-grade teacher from Trapper Creek who spent Monday cleaning at Willow Elementary School.

By "they," Smith meant two Willow boys, ages 13 and 14, who Alaska State Troopers say went on a vandalism spree at the school Saturday.

Teachers, janitors and volunteers from the community and other schools spent Monday righting desks and washing gritty, gray fire extinguisher residue from every surface, book, toy and knickknack in almost every classroom at the Willow school.

"I think they should be doing hard time," said Ilona Kinder, a special education teacher at Trapper Creek and Talkeetna elementary schools.

Others offered similar sentiments. But Willow principal Alberta Nordberg said she didn't want the boys near the school. There's too much emotion in the air, she said.

"That doesn't mean I wouldn't agree to lots and lots of community service," she said.

The district student handbook states the "district will demand reimbursement for the cost of remedying the damage or destruction" resulting from vandalism.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board was previously scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Willow Elementary. Nordberg said she expects a community response at the meeting.

The School Board is not expected to act Wednesday because the incident is not part of the advertised agenda.

Catherine Esary, spokeswoman for the School District, said the School Board has final authority to expel students and decide how much restitution they would pay.

The district student handbook calls for expulsion of students for "behavior, which is contrary to the welfare, safety or morals" of other students and school employees. Students may also be expelled if they are convicted of a crime.

The damage at Willow, Mile 69 Parks Highway, included broken windows, dozens of computer monitors smashed and whirled paint, mustard and ketchup on walls, floors and ceilings. The vandals discharged every fire extinguisher in the building. It left the school coated in grayish grit that irritates eyes and lungs and will mean a huge cleanup bill.

Initial estimates tallied $150,000 in property damage and $50,000 in cleaning fees. On Monday, Nordberg said the property damage estimate isn't firm and might drop, but the cleaning bill might go higher.

Troopers said the two boys told them they trashed the school because they were bored. They broke into the library after prying the door open Saturday, maybe with a screwdriver, Nordberg said. That's where the spree began.

Bookshelves in the library were shoved over and several were broken. Computer monitors were thrown on the floor. They smashed five windows between the library and the hallway with fire extinguishers.

Those windows are now boarded up, and the library might remain closed the rest of the year, Nordberg said.

In another wing, a computer lab with two dozen new Dell computers was attacked. Tables full of computers were dumped upside down. Several monitors were damaged, although School District information technicians found Monday that many still worked, she said.

In some rooms, the attack seemed to be malicious. In Kathy Fiedler's special-education room, they blasted a fire extinguisher into the fish tank.

Fiedler took some of the fish home but isn't sure they'll survive. Two clownfish, two Bala sharks and an African cichlid died. A beautiful blue Jack Dempsey blanched to a pale pink from the stress, she said.

The tank was a hit among her students, she said. Those with attention deficit disorder were better able to concentrate on their homework when they sat near the fish tank, she said.

"The kids looked forward to seeing the fish," she said.

Two butterflies in cocoons also died. Roddy, a white rat adopted by the kindergarten class, coughed a little Monday afternoon but appeared otherwise healthy.

The vandalism spree covered every wing of the school, including Nordberg's office.

A window in her office door was broken out with a fire extinguisher and a bottle of cooking oil was emptied all over her desk. A bottle of blue cheese salad dressing from her mini-fridge was flung against the wall, and handfuls of filed papers were tossed around the room.

Nordberg has seen vandalism sprees before. About five years ago, a student at Trapper Creek Elementary, where she was a teaching principal, broke out windows and trashed her classroom.

That student eventually returned to class, and the Trapper Creek school learned something about forgiveness that year, she said.

Another break-in occurred at the Willow school, where 120 students attend, in September or October 2007 when someone crawled through an open window. Little damage occurred, and Nordberg never found out who was responsible, she said.

Both of the boys charged with the spree were former students, ages 13 and 14. One attended school there last year, Nordberg said. She said she knows the boys, as do many in the community. She wouldn't share their names, citing their juvenile status.

The boys were caught an hour after they fled from the school to a nearby home, troopers said. Blue paint matching the paint spilled at the school was on their shoes, Nordberg said.

The two were released to their parents and face charges of first-degree terroristic threatening, second-degree burglary and third-degree criminal mischief.

Nordberg said this vandalism spree occurred just a month before Guardian Security was set to install an alarm system.

"In Willow, Trapper Creek and Su Valley (Junior/Senior High School), there are no alarm systems," Nordberg said. "If the fire alarms would have gone off, those kids wouldn't have come in."

"The School District is very aware of the need for updated security," Esary said.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 1-907-352-6709.

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