Colfax Elementary Ransacked 3rd Time

When volunteers, parents, teachers and students arrived at Colfax Avenue Elementary School Saturday for the L.A. Works Help-a-Thon, they found 21 ransacked classrooms missing thousands of dollars worth of VCRs, computers, printers, cameras, compact disc players and more.

It was the third and largest burglary the school has suffered in as many months, said Principal Shirley DiRado. She estimates that losses and damage from the three incidents are between $25,000 and $30,000.

And for the Studio City school that prides itself on its diversity and strong technology and arts programs, the burglary either Friday night or early Saturday was a stunning blow.

Break-ins happen at all public schools, DiRado said, “but it just seems that we have nothing left to give. We scrimp, save, fund-raise and buy something and then it’s gone.”

Although a complete inventory of the lost supplies and equipment is not finished, DiRado said the burglars took almost everything that was portable and worth more that $10, including CD players and cameras that teachers had brought from home for enrichment purposes.

Since the school district is self-insured, it is unclear when or if the school will get money to replace the lost equipment.

As for the burglars, DiRado has a message: “What you’re taking really isn’t worth that much. But to us, it’s worth a million because we worked to get it.”

Since the year began, more than $100,000 in computer equipment, televisions and VCRs has been stolen from Valley public schools, according to district records.