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VANDALISM FORCES SCHOOL TO CANCEL CLASSES

Nov. 13, 2001 — Classes at Juanita Gardine Elementary School had to be cancelled Tuesday after vandals trashed class rooms over the holiday weekend.
Gardine Principal Carmine Mills said that the school was vandalized twice over the weekend. Sometime Saturday, vandals broke into the school's kitchen. She was notified by police of the break-in at about 7 p.m.
"They cooked and really made a mess and left," she said.
But what forced classes to be called off on Tuesday was the damage done either on Sunday or early Monday. Mills said that upon returning to the school with students after Veteran's Day events on Monday, she discovered that vandals had again struck. This time almost every room had been "completely trashed," with bulletin boards and chalkboards pulled off the wall, overturned desks and paint poured over the wreckage.
"The school is in deplorable condition," she said. "As a result of that we are unable to have school… I'm hoping we can be back in session Wednesday."
Told of the vandalism at Monday's Veteran's Day events, Gov. Charles Turnbull, a former educator, said he was appalled and called on the community to turn in the culprits.
"This is a self-destructing situation," Turnbull said. "We have a community destroying itself."

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