Vandals trash Lind High School

Unknown vandals gained access to Lind High School late Friday night, breaking windows, discharging fire extinguishers and taking a laptop computer and digital camera. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident as a burglary. Undersheriff John Hunt said the investigation is ongoing.

“There was evidence left at the scene that may be helpful, but we are not willing to disclose that at this time,” Hunt said.

The burglary was reported at 11:41 p.m. Friday after the Lind Fire Department responded to the school as a result of the automatic fire alarm system was triggered.

It’s unknown how the person or persons gained entry to the school.

Once inside they broke the fire extinguisher boxes, shattered a window in a door leading to the school office, discharged the extinguishers in the hallways on the main floor and downstairs where they broke a window on a cafeteria door and a security window leading to the computer lab. They also discharged a fire extinguisher inside a storage closet.

Superintendent Rob Roettger told the Lind School Board that several members of the community came together over the weekend to clean the building and make it ready for students on Monday.

By Monday night the windows hadn’t been replaced but the rest of the school appeared normal.

While disappointed by the turn of events, Principal Brian Ellis stressed that “we have good kids,” on Monday night. Like many others, he was most disturbed by what happened in the school’s cafeteria.

The school’s cook, Mickie Stanley, has a long tradition of decorating the cafeteria for Christmas using her own personal decorations, including family heirloom decorations.

The vandals took down and destroyed some of the decorations in the cafeteria.

“She always said if someone ruined her stuff she would take it all down,” Ellis said. “She has been doing this for as long as she has been the cook. She was trying to do something special for the kids.”

The sheriff’s office didn’t have a damage estimate on Monday as the window replacement hadn’t occurred.