West High Students Face Charges, Expulsion After Vandalism

The Anchorage School District      While Embley estimates
says it has placed five West       physical damages totaled only
High School students on            a few hundred dollars, a lot
emergency suspensions and          of effort was expended in
recommended them for               resolving the incident.
expulsion after they               “It doesn’t appear their
allegedly entered classrooms,      intent was to cause
then knocked over furniture        significant damage but they
and discharged a fire              did cause a significant
extinguisher early Thursday        disruption,” said Gardner
morning.                           Cobb, ASD director of
According to ASD spokesperson      Security and Emergency
Heidi Embley, the four 11th        Preparedness. “There was some
graders and one 10th grader        vandalism and many hours of
climbed onto West High’s roof      staff time were consumed by
and entered the building           cleaning the mess and
through a window. In addition      tracking down the suspects.”
to discharging the                 ASD Superintendent Carol
extinguisher, the students         Comeau condemned the
overturned various desks and       vandalism, which has been a
a cabinet, threw papers            continuing problem for the
across classrooms and entered      district during both the
the building’s underground         school year and the summer
tunnels.                           months.
Students were upset about the      “They may have thought it was
vandalism, and helped West         a harmless prank but it
High’s two school resource         caused quite a mess at the
officers from the Anchorage        school,” Comeau said.
Police Department in their         “Vandalism in any form is not
investigation of the case.         tolerated in our schools. I
”Having the students and           applaud the students and
staff coming together so           staff who stepped forward to
quickly to solve this              share information about this
situation is an outstanding        case and appreciate the work
example how students and           of the school’s SROs who were
staff at West High School          crucial to the solving of the
will not tolerate any              crime.”
disrespect to our school,”         APD spokesperson Anita Shell
said West High Principal Rick      says all five students have
Stone. “Students and staff         been charged with second-
have a high level of respect       degree burglary, with one
for this school and the            student receiving an
outstanding education that         additional trespassing charge
happens every day at West.         due to already being under
These types of situations are      suspension at the time.
rare.”                             

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