ANTIGUA COMPUTERS STOLEN http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=84333

New laptops stolen from school

By Kyle Christian- Observer Media - Wednesday, November 28th, 2012.

Article Hits: 96

2 Comments

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – An information technology programme intended to bring local and Canadian students closer together has been compromised following a burglary at a secondary school on the weekend.

Police reported 11 laptop computers were stolen from Antigua Grammar School (AGS) over the weekend.

The vice principal of the school discovered the incident on Monday when she led a technician to the media centre to fix the broken air conditioning.

The computers were donated to the school by the Canada International Development Agency (CIDA) as a part of a twinning project that would see AGS and Summit Alternative School in Ontario having real-time interactions.

When the systems were donated they were held at the Ministry of Education while a media room was being created at the school to house the laptops.

The room was only recently finished and officials at the school report that students had only used the laptops once for their intended purpose before they were stolen.

Three of the donated computers were reportedly left behind.

Police said a probe into the matter so far has revealed a forced entry into the building to commit the act. Further investigations into the matter are ongoing.

Source at AGS said it is not the first time that the school has been burgled and that the main office had been broken into in the past.

Government supplies 24-hour security at all schools in Antigua & Barbuda.

Officials at the school report that the main computer lab had not been broken into, and only the new media centre with the donated laptops were affected.

Reportedly, all hope for the twinning programme may not be lost. If the students have Internet access elsewhere they can still communicate with their peers in Canada.

However, with the laptops gone, rolling out the programme in the planned timeline is now a challenge. Police continue to investigate the crime.