Nick Todaro, Reporter
08-17-2008
The school year didn’t start quite as administrators at Ruston High School wanted this year.
A report of $7,500-$8,000 in equipment thefts Thursday, the day before school opened for a half-day Friday, has frustrated RHS Principal Mike Milstead, as well as officials in the Lincoln Parish School Board office.
Stolen gear includes five Dell desktop computers and a laptop from the business classes and laboratory facilities on the third floor, as well as a flatscreen, high-definition TV from the a distance learning classroom.
Milstead said apparently thieves tried to get away with more — printers and other equipment were found in a stairwell after the initial discovery of the thefts on the school’s third floor.
“We just feel personally violated,” Milstead said Friday. “Every principal especially feels that it’s ‘their school,’ and I know people who steal things don’t care, but they’ve hurt the kids, really. Obviously, though, the school board will work with us on this.”
Lincoln Parish School Board Secondary Programs Director Ricky Edmiston said the district has turned over the investigation to Ruston Police but is working to mitigate the loss of equipment by scrounging up replacement gear.
Ruston Police Chief Steve Rogers said construction ongoing at the high school is making the investigation difficult, and no leads or suspects have been identified.
“We feel like somebody basically broke in and jimmied a lock and got into a classroom, and knew right where the material was and the shortest way outside,” Milstead said. “But the building is secure now, I’ll tell you that.”
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