hotfudgedetroit.com

Abandoned Detroit Public Schools are under siege by vandals and precious metal thieves, school officials say, but the district and its police department are fighting back.

Police have arrested 104 thieves at vacant Detroit school buildings since September -- many caught in the act, according to Detroit Public Schools' police. Three vehicles were impounded, including a Cadillac, after police found them stuffed with metal ripped out of shuttered Detroit school buildings.

Officials from the district, the Detroit Public Schools Department of Public Safety and Crime Stoppers of Southeast Michigan asked for the public's help Tuesday, saying the crimes have resulted in millions of dollars worth of damage to the city's 53 vacant buildings -- 29 of which were shuttered in 2007.

They announced a new anti-theft program offering rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the vandals and thieves.

"We're working with Detroit police to curtail and hopefully end this destruction," said Public Safety Chief Charles Mitchell, adding that the arrests were made at 30 school buildings across the city. "We need the help of all citizens in the city."

John Broad, president of Crime Stoppers of Southeast Michigan, said metal thieves are terrorizing the city, and residents must do their part to get the problem under control.

"We're under threat in our own community, and in our own homes," Broad said. "It's not only our schools, it's our church buildings, homes and grocery stores.

"You've got people climbing up the telephone poles and cutting down the lines, which makes it impossible even to call for help."

Nate Taylor, chief of facilities maintenance and auxiliary services for Detroit Public Schools, said the district's efforts to clean up and secure the buildings has been hindered by problems with Aramark, a Philadelphia-based company hired to empty vacated buildings and inventory the contents. The district paid Aramark $486,000 to do the work, but took over the job itself, utilizing district employees, Taylor said.

Thirty of the district's abandoned buildings have been cleaned out and secured with heavy-duty coverings over all of the windows. The districts will continue the job until all of the buildings are secure, Taylor said.

A small number of schools will be restored to useable condition, in case growth requires the district to open the schools in the future. But the large-scale damage inflicted on most of the buildings is just too expensive for the district to repair, Taylor said.

"The destruction is so extensive that in some cases it would take millions of dollars to repair it," he said.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... 1408/LOCAL

Green = You are on point
Yellow = Danger!
Orange = You Better Check Yourself!
Red = You Blew It!

paramour wrote:

Green = You are on point
Yellow = Danger!
Orange = You Better Check Yourself!
Red = You Blew It!

And we wonder why DPS stats are the way they are?

David Hall wrote:

paramour wrote:

Green = You are on point
Yellow = Danger!
Orange = You Better Check Yourself!
Red = You Blew It!

And we wonder why DPS stats are the way they are?

What do you mean by that? Are teachers not allowed to use phrases that their students are familiar with? In your eyes what would be an appropriate phrase for phase orange that both promotes classroom discipline and improves the stats for DPS?

David Hall wrote:

paramour wrote:

Green = You are on point
Yellow = Danger!
Orange = You Better Check Yourself!
Red = You Blew It!

And we wonder why DPS stats are the way they are?

What do you mean by that? Are teachers not allowed to use phrases that their students are familiar with? In your eyes what would be an appropriate phrase for phase orange that both promotes classroom discipline and improves the stats for DPS?

frank - up in grand blanc wrote:
= "I'm 'fina snatch you bald-headed if'n you doan stop playin'" - DPS

= "This is your third warning; only 18 more" - Grand Blanc Schools

= "Do you want me to beat your ass again?" - FUIGB

= "That's it: I'm packing!" - Mrs. FUIGB

= "He's wearing a turban! He's wearing a turban!" - HRC

= "What's your fucking problem?" - various HFD

= "Same answer as yesterday & day before: no change" - CAY visitor on the corner of Jefferson & Woodward

A month after Detroit Public Schools officials announced that most of the district's vacant schools had been carefully secured, Joy Middle School on the city's east side sat last week with unlocked doors, rubble-filled hallways trashed by vandals, a room full of new computers left behind and a stash of students' personal records scattered on the floor.

The destruction in a school vacant for just 10 months stands as a stunning example of what can go wrong in the handful of schools yet to be secured by the district. Of the 33 schools closed last year, Detroit Public Schools did not immediately board up and empty out all the buildings, saying a contractor had failed to do its job.

The delay in securing Joy has left parents wondering about the security of their children's records, residents questioning the safety of their neighborhood and taxpayers potentially on the hook for costly repairs if the district tries to lease out the vacant building.

The district has not released a list of all the schools that remain to be secured. Two elementary schools the Free Press inspected from the outside last week seemed to be in better condition, though they, too, were unlocked.

District spokesman Steve Wasko could not say when or how all the buildings will be secured, although he said Thursday that Joy's windows were boarded up three times over the past two weeks. The district's police department has arrested about 120 thieves in its vacant schools since last summer. Crime Stoppers of Southeast Michigan is offering $1,000 rewards for tipsters who turn in criminals.

"This is a major community-wide epidemic," Wasko said of the vandalism and thefts.

Among the items left in Joy were psychological records, report cards and other sensitive information on special-education students that could be taken by identity thieves. One room was filled with new computers, components still in the original packaging.

The building has been mined for metals, thieves tearing it apart along the way. The halls are overtaken by heaping piles of rubble left by scavengers who hammered out the cinder block walls and pulled down ceiling tiles.

And neighbors said Thursday that they fear for their children's safety, having seen teens and drug addicts get into the school, start fires and have sex on the grounds.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... /804040302

Of the 33 schools closed last year, Detroit Public Schools did not immediately board up and empty out all the buildings, saying a contractor had failed to do its job.