Vandals strike county schools

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Oct. 3, 2002
It will take days for things to get back to normal at West Lauderdale High School and Southeast High School after both were vandalized earlier this week.
While the school district works on repairing thousands of dollars worth of damage, the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department is looking for suspects.
Windows were broken at both schools and containers of paint, taken from a storage building at West Lauderdale, were thrown through windows, splattering paint inside the building.
Computers were knocked on the floor at West Lauderdale, where the culprits entered through the office, said Maj. Ward Calhoun of the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff Billy Sollie said the vandalism happened sometime between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. Wednesday. It was discovered by a custodian first thing Wednesday morning.
Ed Mosley, assistant superintendent of the Lauderdale County School District, said the buildings are equipped with alarm systems. When asked if he knew why they didn't work, or how they could have been bypassed, he said he didn't know.
School Superintendent David Little was out of town and unavailable for comment.
The destruction was so bad at West Lauderdale that school officials considered canceling classes, Mosley said. He added that nothing was stolen, to his knowledge, from either school.
Sollie said he believes the suspect or suspects are juveniles and that his officers collected some physical evidence at the scene. Vandalism is a misdemeanor, Sollie said, but parents of juvenile offenders may be held financially responsible.
People with information about the crimes are asked to call CrimeStoppers at 917-8888.