SOUTH CAROLINA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SAME SCHOOL TWICE WLTX News 19 Columbia Elementary School Burglarized Twice

(Columbia)-It's a scene Caughman Road Elementary School Principal Jane Wyatt thought she'd never have to describe.

"I feel children in this school do not deserve what is happening to them," she says.

And it's happened twice according to Columbia Police Department incident reports.

On two seperate occasions, burglars broke into the school. Just two weeks ago, nine computers, monitors and printers were taken from classrooms and Tuesday, seven more were stolen.

Wyatt says, "We used to have computers on this table...children had a program called, "Breakthrough to Literacy."

It's a program Elizabeth Blevins says her students used to improve their reading.

"There's is no way to replace all this work they've done since September," Blevins says. "Those records are in the computers."

Ms. Wyatt says good news came Tuesday. She says the computers that were stolen in the morning were found behind a day care center, right up the road from the school.

"We were thrilled. One of the teachers kept jumping up and down. She was so excited when we brought her computers back," says Wyatt.

Unfortunately, Ms. Blevins and her students weren't so lucky.

"They really talked a lot about bad people taking their computer. They just couldn't understand how somebody could come into their environment and take something that belonged to them," says Blevins.

It's a sad reality that Blevins says her students shouldn't have to face.

A representative from Richland County School District One tells News19 all of the stolen computers will be replaced.

If you have any information concerning the break-ins at Caughman Road Elementary, please call Crimestoppers at 1-888-559-TIPS or e-mail a tip to the Crimestoppers website .
Jocelyn Maner, News Reporter
Updated: 1/25/2006 6:42:42 PM