Police probe 32 broken school windows

Published 9:24 pm Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Suffolk police are seeking information on a vandalism attack over the summer in which 32 windows were broken at John Yeates Middle School.

News of the Aug. 14 attack has surfaced almost one month later in a report by Suffolk Public Schools to the School Board, which was posted online Tuesday, on vandalism and theft incidents during August.

The attack was reported to police on Aug. 15, and resulted in a repair bill of more than $4,800, the report states.

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“Multiple windows throughout the school” were targeted, principal Daniel O’Leary said, adding that a custodian discovered the damage while “going through and checking rooms.”

The school has received no information about the vandalism, O’Leary said, saying that various sporting and other groups had visited John Yeates Middle over the summer.

“We normally don’t have issues like that,” the principal starting his seventh year at the school added. “This is something that was probably just random.

Suffolk Police Department spokeswoman Diana Klink wrote in an email, “…there are no witnesses or suspects at this time, and … the incident remains under investigation.”

She requested anyone with information to contact Crime Line at 1-888-Lock-U-Up.

Callers to Crime Line do not have to give their names or appear in court, and information leading to an arrest can qualify a caller for a reward of up to $1,000.

The windows broken measure about 3 feet long by about 18 inches high, and were easy and inexpensive to fix, O’Leary said.

“The school system is trying to penny-pinch, and that cost would have gone a long way for supplies and other things,” he added.