Vandals strike three campuses

Some individuals in this community seem to think it’s fun to damage school property that, as taxpayers, belongs to each and every Maricopa resident.

Since Thursday, May 25, there have been five separate instances of vandalism at the Maricopa High School campus. Vandals broke windows and filled empty beer bottles with white, brown or yellow paint, then smashed them above the entryway door, against walls, sidewalks and against the recently repainted Rams logo wall. Unfortunately, the paint is proving removal-resistant so walls will have to be sandblasted.

Paint mars the entryway to Maricopa High School; it is also splattered on the sidewalk in front of the office door.

The Ram mascot logo was disfigured by vandals; it had been recently refurbished.

In all, the damages total $5,000. Maricopa Middle School and the cafeteria at Maricopa Elementary School have also been attacked. At the elementary school, holes were punched out in walls and ceilings, and a fire extinguisher was sprayed all over the interior.

Doors have been forced open to classrooms, resulting in the theft of DVD players, VCRs and other video equipment. Windows in the discipline office were shot out with either a high-powered pellet gun or a 22-caliber rifle. “That’s getting pretty serious,” noted Deputy Kent Ogaard, School Resource Officer. “Luckily no one was in that office at the time.”

Ogaard and fellow resource officer Larry Eckhardt, who teaches law classes at the school, believe it’s been the same group of kids each time. Other students keep coming up with four or five names, some recently suspended from the school.

“We need the community’s help,” explained Ogaard. “Somebody out there knows something or has seen something.”

Tips can be reported anonymously to Ogaard by contacting him at (520) 568-8127, his school office. The Sheriff’s Office is conducting an ongoing investigation into the incidents.