Theft of Katrina funds stuns school

[Sequoia]

Kids scraped up what they could -- all for naught

The kids who go to Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto don't have much. Ninety percent of the school's 540 students come from homes where the income is so low that they qualify for a free lunch. But when teachers asked them last month if they'd like to take up a collection for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, that did not hold the students back.

Some dug for pennies found down the side of the family couch. One sold candy bars in her apartment building. Another worked extra chores at home after his mom promised him she'd give him extra money. Their parents pitched in, too, holding a bake sale and donating proceeds to the school-wide relief effort.

School officials estimated that they'd raised $1,500 in loose change and small bills. But somebody else apparently realized it, too, and over the weekend used a crowbar to break into the principal's office and steal several 5-gallon water bottles containing the money.

"We thought it was safe here, but whoever stole it definitely knew what they wanted to get,'' Cammie Harris, the principal of the fourth- to eighth-grade academy for the past three years, said Monday.

Harris was so distraught by the theft that nearly four hours after school began Monday, she still hadn't told students what happened. How would she break it to the sixth-grade girl who'd brought coins every single day since the collection began?

<snip>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/04/BAGVPF28KV1.DTL

[KittyWampus]

1. some business people in that neighborbood need to step up and replace

stolen funds.

:puke:

[Sequoia]

9. UPDATE: Wells Fargo steps in

Wells Fargo Replaces Students Stolen Katrina Donations

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Roughly $1,500 in loose change and small bills that needy elementary school students raised for Hurricane Katrina victims was stolen by a crowbar-wielding burglar or burglars who left behind a scrawl of graffiti.

"We thought it was safe here, but whoever stole it definitely knew what they wanted to get," said Cammie Harris, principal of Cesar Chavez Academy.

Ninety percent of the school's 540 students in grades four through eight come from homes that qualify for free lunch. School officials said students searched couches, knocked on doors and performed extra chores to raise the cash.

Harris' office was broken into and the culprit or culprits made off with 5-gallon water jugs filled with cash.

Harris said graffiti left on her office wall during the weekend robbery read: "That's what you get for suspending me." Another note was scribbled on the walls of the science lab: "You got robbed by kids."

School officials said they talked to the only student suspended recently, who didn't know about the robbery. The graffiti might have been left to throw them off the thief's trail, they said.

The school got some help Tuesday when Wells Fargo bank offered to replenish the money the students raised -- and add an extra $11,000 for the cash-strapped school to use.

<snip>

http://www.ktvu.com/news/5057321/detail.html

[Old Vet]

2. Damn, Theres a special place in hell for the parasites who did..

this. Just returned from New Orleans and they need help so bad down there.

[sasquatch]

3. Find the Rat-Bastard that did that

Then slice a whole in their stomach, pull out the intestines and tie it to a pole or tree. Then tell them to march around the pole or tree until they die.

[Sequoia]

6. Amazing you would mention that!!

That's what ancient Germans did to people who'd even cut bark off a tree. I read about that in the book, "The Golden Spruce" about 8 weeks ago. It stunned me that someone would think of doing that. But in this case.....!!

[sasquatch]

7. I read that the Shawnee Indians(local tribe) did it as revenge sometimes

Small world.
:)

[Toots]

4. Something a Freeper with the "mine mine gimmie gimmie" mindset would do

Welcome to Cheney's Amerika as Homer recently said.....after a similar incident on the Simpson's.

[BlueJazz]

5. Actually...this shouldn't be a hard case to solve.....

1. Make a list of people (Students and Teachers) who knew that the change was stored in the office.
2. Check to see who had friends with ...ah...shall we say...."Not so perfect backgrounds".
3. Contact Banks for any person wanting to cash in large amounts of change...or even smaller amounts, over and over again. Even contact supermarkets who have those "Redeem change" machines.

4...and other police methods.

They'll catch um...

[SeattleGirl]

8. Man, stories like this make me want to

:cry: and :puke: ! We've had a number of incidents like that in the Seattle area, particularly at holiday time, where some jerk breaks into a warehouse where gifts for the needy are stored, and they steal them, or they steal money that was raised for one purpose or another.

Makes me really hope there is such a thing as karma!

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. That is just horrible. I hope whoever took it truly NEEDED it

http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm