NEW MEXICO COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SCHOOLThe News-Bulletin: Five break-ins in 10 days hit Peralta SchoolFive break-ins in 10 days hit Peralta School

Clara Garcia and Brandy Slagle News-Bulletin Staff Writers; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com; bslagle@news-bulletin.com

Peralta A few weeks before school is scheduled to start, school administrators and staff are working to clean up Peralta Elementary after someone broke in, vandalized the school and stole thousands of dollars worth of property.

According to Valencia County Sheriff's Deputy Shannon Brady, the department's spokesperson, the break-in is the fifth at the school in 10 days. The latest break-in occurred sometime between Saturday morning and Monday.

Brady said whoever broke into the school most likely got in by prying open doors to a new section of the buildings. Along with breaking about a dozen windows inside the school, the vandals also damaged steel and wooden doors trying to gain access to several rooms in the building.

The deputy said the administration offices, library, nurse's office, gymnasium and computer lab were ransacked. School officials and law enforcement investigators are still trying to figure out what's missing, but early estimates peg the damage and cost of missing items at $30,000.

Brady said that she believes most of the burglaries are related "but this weekend was the worst. The children are left with four working computers."

Along with stripping most of the computers out of the lab, the burglars also took computer scanners, printers, digital cameras, software and some monitors. She said it was clear that these people knew what they were after and they targeted mostly expensive equipment.

The first time police were called to investigate the break-ins, on July 12, they found that intruders were getting into the school through broken windows. The next four times, the burglars were found to have pried the doors open. The school district had had the locks re-keyed.

"The increased patrol in this case has not been working because we can only get to the fence," Brady said. "We can't see if anything has happened until we open those doors. We, as a law enforcement agency, were only acting as a visible deterrent, but we couldn't be here 24 hours a day."

David Yates, principal of Peralta Elementary, said he thought after the first two break-ins that children were responsible. The only damage done to the building was a few broken windows and writing on the chalkboards.

However, as the burglaries continued and technology was stolen, Yates said he has come to believe that the intruders are professionals.

"The initial reaction, of course, is one of dismay and anger. We're trying to get an inventory right now. We don't have all the people back into the office yet, so it will be hard to get that extensive of an inventory until school starts," Yates said, referring to summer vacation.

"On the positive side, though, I think this has solidified the community. We've had a lot of calls and support. I think that we will eventually catch who did it. The other schools have been offering help to us as well. There has been a lot of compassion."

Yates said the campus was already rushing to get classrooms ready for the beginning of school. With all the break-ins and damage, custodians and staff have had to redirect their energy, placing them under a larger strain to get the building ready for students.

The loss of technology is going to be the school's largest obstacle, said Yates.

"We have to use those computers to assess the students at the beginning of the school year. There are new assessments we are doing that require their use. It's caused us some programmatic damage," he said.

Walter Gibson, superintendent of the Los Lunas Schools, said about $2,000 of memory and software were removed from inside the computers. Gibson also said that the outpouring of community support has been extensive.

"There is a strong sense of loyalty in that community to the school. I think anyone who knows anything will come forward and tell us," he said. "I just can't imagine why anyone would target an elementary school for something like this."

Gibson said he does not believe that this situation is dangerous to students who will return to campus in a few weeks. He also said that security has increased on the campus.

The incidents have caused Gibson to speak with school board members about hiring an additional security supervisor position in the near future.

"I didn't think that there was going to be a need to have a security supervisor yet. I was going to discuss it, maybe next winter, when we were looking at the budget," he said. "However, these incidents have precipitated me having those conversations."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Detective Rene Rivera at 866-2415 or 866-2405.