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Our school sits back from the road a bit and is not very visible to passersby.....so we too have frequent broken windows, tagging, and 2 weeks ago we had a piece of the playground stolen.

We just installed our Phase I at the end of Dec 2006, so this is very sad.  I am hesitant to replace the piece so soon, because I don't want to send a message to the vandals that we have a bottomless pit of money to replace items as soon as something happens to them, but I feel that the children of the school are being shortchanged.

We've posted video surveillance signs to scare off would-be vandals and I think it's helped a little bit, but I think we have too many older teens with no supervision and no money who don't have anyplace to go, so they come to the school to cause mischief.

It's very sad and we have lots of people in charge who don't know what to do about it either.  We don't have it as bad as larger cities, but since it took us 4 years to raise the money to building Phase I, it is disheartening to see.

If anyone has any wonderful ideas, please share them!  Cindy in Bremerton, WA

I think the insurance will cover equipment, however, in our instance, the item that was stolen was a seat and it is probably only $100 to replace, and the insurance deductible for an occurrence is $500......so as you can see, in this instance, insurance ain't doing nothing for us!

And with our district having a $3 M short fall and closing two elementary schools at the end of this month, even if the insurance would kick in, they would probably tell us they don't have the $500 to put towards the deductible anyway, so the PTA would have to come up with the money.

;-(   --Cindy

Instead of constantly battling the vandals you should educate your community and have them be the keepers of their own neighborhood. It will be what they make of it and they must understand that.

Austin Stanfel

Creative Recreational Systems, Inc.

916-638-5375

http://www.creativesystems.com

I don't know for sure who the vandals are, but if I had to guess, it would be nearby teen residents of the many apartment building complexes that surround the school.  We have a high number of low income families at our school and you hit the nail on the head, education.  Or, the lack there of.

How exactly do we go about giving them the education?  Most of the adults don't set foot in the school, don't volunteer, don't join the PTA, etc. and the rest care even less. 

The PTA has been doing the majority of the work and fundraising to put in the playground at this school.  The school district has no money to help in anyway, and has just closed 2 schools in June.

I love your idea, but don't see how to pull it off.  Flyers going home with kids yield little results -- they are rarely looked at.  How else do you get information to people?  Most probably don't subscribe to the local newspaper.  I can't put flyers in their mailboxes, that's against the law.

Anyone have ideas or suggestions -- I'd love to hear them!!