| OUSD Press release Oakland, CA — The 2019-20 school year has been a costly one for Oakland Unified School District. Over the Labor Day weekend, someone broke into Markham Elementary School and stole about 60 Google Chromebooks and other items and caused serious damage to several classrooms. This is a loss of thousands of dollars worth of equipment that is critical to the learning process of our students. And this is hardly the first time something like this has happened at an OUSD school this year. Several other schools have been broken into with overall losses totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Markham Elementary was burglarized last school year, as well. In that incident, 40 new Amazon Kindle Fire e-readers were stolen. Amazon heard about the story and sent the classroom in question replacement Kindles. “When a person steals from a school, all they are doing is stealing from students and their future,” said OUSD Communications Director, John Sasaki. “This trend of school burglaries is something that needs to stop. Police are on alert for suspicious behavior around our schools, used goods stores are on alert to beware of merchandise stolen from schools and the District is working to improve security at all schools and other facilities. Bottom line is everyone wants to protect our schools, our students and their education.” Any media interested in covering this incident and the issues that surround school burglaries, should contact John Sasaki at 510-214-2080. |
| ###About the Oakland Unified School DistrictIn California’s most diverse city, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is dedicated to creating a learning environment where “Every Student Thrives!” More than half of our students speak a non-English language at home. And each of our 83 schools is staffed with talented individuals uniting around a common set of values: Students First, Equity, Excellence, Integrity, Cultural Responsiveness and Joy. We are committed to preparing all students for college, career and community success. To learn more about OUSD’s Full Service Community District focused on academic achievement while serving the whole child in safe schools, please visit OUSD.org and follow us @OUSDnews. |
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