Vandals trash Edison H.S., cause 30G in damages

With desks and chairs overturned, computers smashed and stolen, and windows broken, it looked like a tornado had hit Edison High School yesterday.

The trashing of the North Philadelphia school was done by brazen bandits who broke in on Sunday. They left in their wake about $30,000 in damage, according to the School District of Philadelphia.

"They ransacked the main office, the principal's office, the library and the cafeteria," said Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman. He said three vandals struck about 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Authorities are investigating the possibility that they got into the school through the roof.

"They turned furniture upside down, they threw books and papers on the floor, and broke interior glass windows," Gallard said.

He estimated that 15 to 20 computer monitors had been destroyed, along with a computer printer and two photocopiers.

About $2,000 in cash was stolen from the Home and School Association office, authorities said.

The path of destruction went from the front office to all three floors of the school, on West Luzerne Street near Front.

Security cameras captured images of three people roaming around the school, but their identities, including their genders, have not been determined, Gallard said.

State Rep. Angel Cruz, who represents that area, said he was outraged because he had been asking the district for two years to put more cameras in the school. He said he believed that just two cameras are now on campus.

"They said we're going to get them, but this has been two years and we still don't have them," he said. "We want answers."

Cruz said that the break-in could have been an inside job. "Whoever did this knew what they were looking for," he said. There was no forced entry. It was a good, professional job - it was not sloppy."

Cruz, who is running for re-election, said he also was upset that classes were not dismissed yesterday at the school of 2,400 students.

Besides the vandalism, he said, an 11th-grade female student committed suicide at home Friday night.

"Today was a sad day," Cruz said. "It was a lot of tension in the school. This was a day they should have had an early dismissal."

Gallard said that Cruz was mistaken about the number of surveillance cameras at the school. The building has 32 color cameras inside and outside, Gallard said. Also, he said, during the last two years the school added new metal detectors and other security hardware.

He said that classes had not been dismissed because the damage was discovered around 6:30 a.m. yesterday, giving workers time to clean up most of the debris before students arrived.

Gallard said that counselors were on hand to help students deal with the grief caused by the death of their 17-year-old classmate. He could not confirm that the girl had commited suicide.