Glass shattered. Fragments of what was once a window and lightbulb strewn about the library. This was the sight Sahuaro’s librarian, Mrs. Krieg, walked into on Tuesday, September 5th, after Labor Day weekend.
Sahuaro’s library was victim to vandalism in the form of a break-in. Students were not allowed to go to the library on Tuesday, and an email was sent out to teachers informing them not to send students.
“I’m like ‘That’s interesting, where is this glass from?’ because I looked all around, and I didn’t see any broken windows,” said Mrs. Krieg. She was on her way to drop something off when she noticed bits of glass on the library floor and when she walked into the conference room, she saw the real damage – the window was open, light bulbs were shattered, and there had been damage to a newer blue chair that was in the room. As far as books go, nothing seemed to be moved or taken.
It appears that the break-in happened through the window in the conference room. There was a hole in one of the library windows, but it seems that the main area was never entered. Luckily, a mighty Jack Skellington poster saved the day and covered that window.
The weapon of choice? A rock. Mrs. Krieg didn’t see the rock until Brian, Sahuaro’s custodial engineer, found it. He joked that Mrs. Krieg should display it and write the date on it. She has plans to potentially use it as a doorstop. She said in a follow-up email to the staff: “…a special thank you to Brian for his quick handy work and resourcefulness.”
Luckily, the library was quick to recover and planned to be open for Academic Study Clinic after school the same day. The windows have been patched up and are headed for repair. The cameras are being looked at, and the incident is being investigated.
“It just makes me very very sad and a little violated that they did that to the library because I like to think of it as a safe place,” Mrs. Krieg expressed.
Sahuaro is lucky that the damage was contained to one of the conference rooms, and the library was spared. Libraries are a safe space for every student, so hopefully, nothing like this happens again and we can continue to treat the library with respect.
