School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

Vandalism is nothing new, to be sure.  Even when I was in high school, cases of vandalism happened.  Now, many decades later, vandals still exist in schools and this is not limited to any particular country either.  From the United States to Canada to Europe to Asia, I am sure that there are at least several cases of vandalisms in school districts in any given year.

What prompted me to write about this topic is an article I read over at KGW.com:

Vandals broke 16 windows at Heritage High School in Vancouver over the weekend, forcing the district to put money into costly repairs.

School officials said it’s frustrating to have to take money that should be spent in the classrooms and use it to deal with vandalism.

“It of course takes our resources and time to make the repairs and it’s wasting taxpayer dollars when this damage occurs, which is bad because it takes money out of our educational coffers to pay for the vandalism that’s going on,” said Scott Deutsch, Risk and Safety Manager for the Vancouver School District.

Scott Deutsch’s statement made me think.  Who is supposed to pay for repairs to damages that result from acts of vandalism?  Indeed, it is school property, and ultimately, the responsibility for repairs lies at the feet of the school.  However, I do believe that those responsible for the damage should also shoulder the responsibility of the repairs.

What Deutsch said about taking money out of educational coffers is very true.  At this point in time when we are all tightening our belts, when  budgets for education are being cut, it seems like such a waste to be using much needed money to repair something that shouldn’t have been necessary.  Now if it were only ordinary wear and tear, it would be a different story.  But damages from vandalism are something else.
Then again, if we were to ask the vandals to pay, the premise is that they should be known.  I think this is one problem – sometimes, the perpetrators are not discovered.  But, assuming that we know who caused the damage, don’t you think that they should be asked to pay for their deeds?  Instead of using tax payer’s money to repair damages that should not have occurred in the first place, let the vandals take care of the costs.  What do you think?

Photo courtesy of suviko

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