It turns out that the bronze plaques that were stolen recently at Santa Ana High School were not the only such plaques stolen from SAUSD schools. “The Santa Ana Unified School District also announced that more plaques were stolen from Martin Elementary School, Mitchell Child Development Center and Carr Intermediate School. That brings the total number of missing plaques to nine,” according to the O.C. Register.
Even worse, “The thefts occurred between Oct. 7 and Oct. 15. School officials believe a thief or thieves pulled the dedication plaques from one school per night, then hit Santa Ana High School on the night of Oct. 14 or the early morning of Oct. 15.”
If these plaques were successively stolen, why didn’t the school district move to secure the remaining ones? did they even notice they were stolen? Why even have a school police if they aren’t going to do their job? And what does this say about the supposed SAUSD School Police Coordinator, Cecilia Aguinaga, who is running for the SAUSD School Board? Looks like they need better coordinating.
Also, who the heck is the risk manager for the SAUSD? These thefts have been ongoing throughout the City of Santa Ana. It is the job of a risk manager to identify such trends and make sure that an organization takes steps to prevent such losses. Who is the SAUSD risk manager and why was this person asleep at the wheel?
“The district asked that anyone with information call the anonymous WeTip hotline at 800-78-CRIME (27463) or visit www.wetip.com. Tipsters can also report information to the school district at 714-558-5111 or to school police at 714-558-5535.”
It gets very expensive to live in a crime-ridden city.
Agreed Red, but if you know you are in a crime area you don’t put out the expensive plaques. Aren’t bronze plaques expensive and easily recycled (kudos to the thieves for going green)? Why not cement plaques, aluminum plaques? Is it only because of expense that bronze is chosen? Was it a give-away or naivete or just blind ego or traditionalism? In any case all they did is contribute to the decline of the community. Thanks again Russo-Olsky.
This is an interesting story especially the part where the thefts happened over a period of a week ending with the Santa Ana High loss that made the newspaper. It would appear the district did not wish to mention the previous thefts at that time. I wonder why. I also wonder why the district would put up $10k in reward over about five hundred dollars worth of metal. The competance of the district claim that they have no record of the names of the war veterans on the plaques speaks for itself.
In fairness to the school police, like all other classified employees, they were cut back. So who knows if there were any school police even checking schools during the night.
I’m told Cecilia Aguinaga is a “school police parent coordinator” with virtually nothing to do with the operation of the police. Actually I am hard pressed to find anyone that knows what she really does including some of the cops.
Finally the risk manager, Camille Boden. Since taking the position this woman has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in workman compensation cases. You may recall two Register stories that highlighted her lack of competance over the last year or two. One involved removing cats from the district office premices and the other was a soccer field scheduling mess she created. A problem so beyond her that a state senator had to come down and help arbitrate it out. That is who the risk manager is. I doubt she had a clue the plaques were even stolen.
Anonyms,
The cleaning staff at night has been cut down/out, I am thinking, too. They would have been able to keep an eye on vandalism and loitering. Between the cut back security and the lack of upkeep due to cut backs, the schools can be expected to suffer in terms of physical facilities.
It looks like those bronze plaques have been around for a long time? The district will have to figure out what to replace them with going forward.
There was a bad incident of vandalism in Irvine, and there were supposed to be security cameras. So far, there has been no news of any suspects:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/school-irvine-water-2198322-hicks-high?slideshow=1
The survelance camera footage is a real break because schools generally do not allow survelance cameras anywhere students will be with the common exception of school busses for obvious safety reasons. The construction company must have the ability to except itself from the regulations binding the district.
School Police was busy chasing down laptops and projectors stolen by students who burglarized classrooms after hours. The students were identified and taken to juvenile hall.
Anonyms,
I’m not sure where you get your information but schools use cameras everywhere they can afford to as long as it is a common area such as a quad, parking lot, or even hallways. Perhaps you are speaking only about Irvine.
SAUSD has cameras at Segerstrum and possibly other schools. Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach also has cameras around it’s campus too. I’ve seen footage of vandals tagging the school. It is perfectly legal since no expectation of privacy exists in common areas of a school.
Anotheranon,
Thanks for the info about school police being on the job at night. By the way which night of the week long thefts were the school police busy chasing these burglars and what were they doing the rest of the week while the other plaques were stolen?
The one officer at night was going to alarm calls, vandalism calls, vehicle burglary calls, robbery calls, grand thefts, petty thefts, opening gates or doors for staff members, assault calls from students beat up on the way home, and delivering board member documents. Standing guard next to school plaques was not high on the priority list.
Another Anon,
You might review my original comment where I did not feel school police were at fault due to the latest cutbacks, but since you have become so defensive, let us look at some facts.
To begin with the plaque thefts occurred over a period of 8 days apparently with the final hit of SAHS overnight Oct 14-15. We can come back to that in a minute.
Your first comment says that school police were busy catching burglars stealing laptops and projectors eventually ending in arrests and booking into juvenile hall. The implication is that this rampage and arrest occurred the same night of the Santa Ana High School plaque thefts. That sounded reasonable to me.
My reply was while that explains at least one theft, presumably the one at SAHS, where were the school police regarding the other three thefts over the seven day period?
Your reply was basically that the district had ONE officer on duty and you were just providing a laundry list of all the calls and duties the ONE police officer handled over the period of the thefts. I do not dispute that either.
Now here is the problem with your second comment. First of all the SAHS plaque thefts occurred overnight on a Tuesday-Wednesday between the hours of 11pm to 5am. I suspect all the other plaque thefts also happened sometime during these late hours.
I doubt many students were beat up on the way home during those late hours. Secondly, no school staff work past midnight thus I doubt robbery, grand thefts, petty thefts or opening gates and doors for school staff were in high demand during those hours. And finally since you mentioned it. School board documents are delivered by school police on Friday evenings when they should be on patrol of the schools. Why police are taken away from their duties during Friday evening, a prime night for criminal activity never made sense to me, but even so that had nothing to do with school police missing plaque thefts over a period of a week or the thefts at SAHS during mid week.
I have no doubt that your report of activities the ONE school police officer was involved with are true over a weeks time. I have a serious problem with your attempt to try to make it appear that the officer(s) are overwhelmed with crime.
Based upon your comments the district would be better off with no officers on duty except during school and letting the city police handle the overnight criminal activities. Your comments make it clear school police can not undertake the responsibility or have the capability of handling overnight crime.
Not defensive, just providing information IN GENERAL. You want to get into specifics, go down to school police and check their logs. Fifty something school sites, one officer to patrol the entire district. City PD is also doing budget cuts, but I’m sure they would have caught these guys. Maybe citizens like yourself, who appear to have a lot of time, could help out.
It’s obvious you are anti school police and nothing I say will enlighten you. Enough said.