VARIOUS schools could be burglarized this summer but the Public School System has no resources to provide adequate security, according to an official of the Board of Education.
BOE Vice Chairman Roman Benavente said PSS used to hire security guards for each public school on Saipan but this has stopped due to lack of money.
“When PSS had the money, we used to provide security on campus from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning. That really deterred a lot of crimes— vandalism, burglaries and other illegal activities,” Benavente said.
“Now, most of the schools cannot afford to hire security guards because of the funding level that we have. It comes down to a point where we have to hit basic, meaning to say, we want our kids to learn so we have to pay the teachers first,” he said.
Burglars usually target the schools’ TVs, stereos, computers, among other things.
“Those are very expensive. When (schools) are burglarized those are the ones stolen so we have to buy new ones,” Benavente said.
Last Friday, Garapan Elementary School was burglarized.
Deikola Olikong, the school’s acting principal, said the burglars broke a window to enter the classroom. They did not take anything but they vandalized the room.
“What the kids did is they entered the room and turned the boxes upside down. They vandalized the room. Nothing was stolen. The unit that was broken into was for Head Start,” she said.
Garapan is one of the few public schools that can afford to hire security guards.
This month, Olikong said Garapan hired a security agency from 7 p.m. to the early morning hours. The school, however, closes at 4:30 p.m. and authorities suspect that the burglars entered the room between 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
