‘Schools have no security guards at all’

The lack of 24-hour security guards in public schools is being partly blamed for the recent rash of burglaries and break-ins affecting public schools in the CNMI.

Kagman High School principal Doreen Tudela said that public schools do not have security guards who make the rounds at night to ensure that the entire school premises are secured. She said this has been a problem with the school system due to lack of funding.

To hire guards, public schools would need at least $20,000 each year for each security personnel. This represents payment for only nine and a half months of service, equivalent to one school year.

In a large school such as KHS, she said one security guard is not enough to monitor the entire school premises. “If a school has only one security guard and makes a scheduled inspection, who would guard the other areas of the schools while the guard is making his or her rounds?”

In its budget report for fiscal year 2006, which was submitted to the Governor’s Office in March and is awaiting approval, the Public School System is asking for $50 million, including $375,000 for a PSS-wide privatization of all security services.

The report stated that hiring security guard services is less expensive than using full-time PSS employees to guard the schools.

“Some schools have no security services at all,” said the report.

Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos and Board of Education chair Roman C. Benavente have also been asking since April for an additional $700,000 to support the schools’ operations funds. Part of the request is a $100,000 allocation for the payment of security guards deployed in schools in the CNMI. The request is currently with the Senate office for review and approval.

Tudela said it is better to tell the community the truth that her school and the other schools do not have security personnel.

“We need to ask the community for assistance,” she said.

She said there is an urgent need to push CNMI leaders to help approve the budget that the Education office has been requesting.

She appealed to lawmakers and the community that, if they value education for their children, they should invest and take ownership. “Walk that talk.”

Tudela’s school was involved in an arson incident on May 28, when its Environmental Science and Oceanography room was burned down. The room was considered the most “high-tech” facility in the school. Over $50,000 worth of newly acquired computer and information technology equipment were lost in the fire. The three suspects in the case have been identified by police as students of the school. PSS attorneys are representing the school in the case.

Tudela earlier said that the science room housed the main electrical switchboards for the entire school wing’s power sources. She said they would have to reconnect the wirings and renovate the entire room at a cost of $200,000.

The weekend burglary incident at the Hopwood Junior High School is also being blamed on the lack of security personnel at the school, said Christine Halloran, a teacher at the school.

She said one of the rooms ransacked by the burglars was the Lina’la Malawasch Academy room, which is her office. She expressed belief that one of the culprits could be one of her students because the burglars went to the rooms of the other teachers but did not touch her desk. She said the burglars knew where to go in that wing.

She said her student might eventually speak up on the incident and could probably pinpoint the culprits.

Acting principal Beth Nepaial said Halloran also teaches at the Juvenile Detention Center and those children and youths leaving the center go straight to Hopwood for follow up schooling at the LMA rooms.

According to Department of Public Safety spokesman Eric David, the Hopwood incident is still being investigated.