Just two weeks before graduation preparations at one high school have hit a snag. Over the weekend thieves cleaned out $11,000 worth of equipment from Ladyville Technical High School's computer lab. The most important piece of equipment was the school's hi-tech computer server which, to cut costs, the school was using to print their own graduation invitations and other printed materials. Now, they have no way to print those invitations, and are just trying to pick up the pieces. Here's the story.
Keith Swift Reporting, Email - [keithkswift@gmail.com]
The thieves got in by screwing out this lock on the backdoor of the computer lab. Once inside the burglars took seven keyboards, a CPU like this one, and a box of electrical tools. But their grand prize was a $6,000 super-computer - an IBM server. The school's computer teacher Ramilio August says the super computer was the heart of their network and the thieves stole invaluable information.
Ramilio August,
"That server had all my files; my student files, the school's files, my graduation files, grades, examination for most of my teachers, and other very important data that was in the system I now don't have it anymore. It's a black system; it has a CD burner and the basics. What makes it different is that its big, its large, it's a tower style and its quite heavy, very heavy, and it has several cooling systems inside it that keeps the machine running cool at normal temperature and so forth. Once they see a machine running showing Microsoft Server 2003 Evolution Edition they definitely will know that its for Ladyville Tech."
All told the burglars got off with $11,000 worth of equipment from Ladyville Tech. It's a hard hit for this struggling school. Principal Diane Westby says it is a setback but a temporary one.
Diane Westby, Principal
"We are a little disappointed that someone would actually deprive the school since we are in the business of educating but as I said we have not dwelled on it too much. We have made a report to police, we expect they will do their job, and we have proceeded from there. We have been adjusting. The computer teacher has been making the adjustment so as not to stop us from having classes and so we can continue to prepare for graduation because we are processing our stuff right here at school. I would like to appeal to the public that if anybody knows who was involved to report to the police and for them not to buy the stolen goods because remember these things were stolen from a school and its going to affect your children in some way or the other."
Principal Diane Westby and the school is appealing for help in either recovering the stolen server or obtaining a new one. Commencement exercises are scheduled for June 18th.
