Burglary at Special Needs School Forces Temporary Closure
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Employees at a special needs school in Liberty City returned to work Tuesday, January 21st to find their school had been burglarized. Computers were stolen and one of the schools two vans was missing from the parking lot.
"The back doors were off the hinges and the gate was wide open," said CEO Michael Faine.
Among the items missing, were several computers which were ripped out of the office and classrooms.
"Everything is worked by computers. There's nothing done manually so they actually basically stopped the operations of the school for a few days because we were without our computers," said School counselor Yolanda Mcknight-Jones. "Our boss had to go out and get computers just to maintain the operations of the school."
Faine bought the computers with money out of his own pocket.
One of the schools two 15-passenger vans was taken too. It's a tough loss because many of the kids who attend the school can't get around on their own.
Faine has run the school for the last 12 years. He said the school is already running on a shoestring budget and preventing another burglary from happening again will be tough.
"We're going to try to get some cameras, but I have to wait a while because we're really in the hole financially," said Faine.
Teachers and students are not only feeling the pain in their dwindling budget, but also in their hearts.
"We had learned to control our anger which was very difficult," said school counselor Yolanda Mcknight-Jones. "We're trying to keep things from happening, but you have to accept what is happening, move on, and accept it in a positive way."
Faine said DJ equipment valued at over $5,000 was also taken.
Police still have no leads in the case.
