Rooftop vandals broke into three science classrooms at Laguna Beach High School at 11:56 p.m. New Year’s Eve, covering every surface and laboratory equipment with white fire-retardant powder sprayed from fire extinguishers, said Jeff Dixon, facilities director at Laguna Beach Unified School District.
The retardant set off fire alarms, although nothing was discovered missing, police said.
Nevertheless, the mess “was pretty overwhelming,” said Dixon. On Saturday, Jan. 2, Dixon and a crew of custodians carefully vacuumed the snowy powder from every crack and crevice and restored the rooms prior to school recommencing this past week.
The vandals slipped in through windows close to the roof near Park Avenue at the front of the school on Dec. 31, said Dixon. The exterior pane of the window slid open, he said, which allowed the second pane to be unlatched from the outside. “It’s really a bad design on that window,” he said, adding that the district is looking at immediate and long-term solutions.
Using permanent markers on the doors, walls and white boards, vandals also marked the rooms with graffiti, said Dixon, including profanity, sexual drawings and drawings of marijuana leaves and smoking marijuana cigarettes. “It’s really unfortunate to have any sort of vandalism,” said Dixon.
Two weeks earlier, vandals destroyed air conditioning condensers on an opposite rooftop, causing $9,000 in damages, said Dixon.
No one has been apprehended while investigators are looking into evidence to determine if the two incidents are connected, said police spokesman Sgt. Tim Kleiser.
