Practice News Story

Forty-four. That is the number of thefts that have happened on campus just this year. 

“We had 21 incidents of theft on campus all last year. This year we are at 44. At this rate, we will record almost 75 incidents this year,” Linda Richey, principal, said.

The thieves are taking a variety of school property, from money to computers and VCRs. 

In the most recent incident, two people broke in to the Writing Lab and destroyed 18 computers and stole two computers. 

Many members of the school district are trying to come up with ways to end this trend and all other forms of offensive activity. 

One plan that members have developed so far is a Crime Stoppers program directed toward high school students. 

“Kids will police one another. They know what is good and what isn’t good,” Ben Gerard, School Resource Officer, said.  

With help from donations from local businesses, StuCo will be handing out business cards and magnets with a phone number to call to report theft.

There will also be a reward program to encourage students to report offenses if they witness them. 

Rewards can be from $50 to $500, depending on the severity of the offense reported. The money will come from state and federal grants. 

However, not everyone is in favor of the new program.

“What’s going to happen is that a lot of people are going to start [reporting] people so they can get some money and probably use that money to buy drugs themselves,” Ben Staggerbush, junior, said.

According to Staggerbush, students are going to start reporting people just so that they can get some easy money. 

“I think there are going to be lawsuits on people making false arrests,” Staggerbush said. 

Despite the opposition from students, administrators are confident that most students will be on board with the new program.

“Most kids have a lot of pride in their school and don’t like people tearing it down. I can see where there will be an overwhelming success,” Richey said.

The Crime Stopper program will be in effect on March 1.