$1M in thefts and no applications for prosecution?
Apparently East St. Louis School District 189 Superintendent Theresa Saunders believes that ESL residents are pretty dumb.
That’s my conclusion after learning that Saunders expects us to believe that a 14-year-old kid is responsible for the theft of 110 laptops and other equipment from ESL school property during the past year.
Approximately $1 million in thefts have occurred (over that same period), despite the fact that $1.2 million was paid to KLM Security to avert this very thing.
If you do a little bit of elementary mathematics, it would appear that ESL Schools didn’t receive a return on their security investment.
Maybe I’m a bit pessimistic, skeptical, even distrustful of ESL school officials, but I’d go so far as to ask if these thefts were, perhaps, an inside job.
One indicator of a cover-up is when officials refuse to cooperate with the authorities. That’s precisely what happened when Officer Ronald Ike Sr. of the ESL Police attempted to investigate thefts at ESL Senior High.
Officer Ike reported that, upon arrival at the school to investigate thefts of laptop computers, officials refused to cooperate and walked away.
Then there are myriad other documented instances in which school alarms were not set, doors were left unlocked and cameras were turned in the wrong direction. Coincidence? Or a set-up by some inside persons working in conjunction with the thieves?
Yet, Saunders wants us to believe something as unlikely as some 14-year-old master criminal who has outsmarted school officials, in-house security and law enforcement.
There’s also the glaring fact, according to St. Clair County State’s Attorney Bob Haida, that not one single application for prosecution was received from District 189 in the past year.
That’s extraordinarily suspicious. One million in thefts and no applications for prosecution?
Saunders and School Board President Lonzo Greenwood should be run out of town for that fact alone.
Fortunately, at least one school board member has had the integrity to give this matter the attention that it deserves.
School board member Carl E. Officer not only made a formal request (of Saunders) to release a list of stolen items, but also requested that outgoing U.S. Attorney A. Courtney Cox conduct an investigation into the thefts.
What credible school district would allow 110 laptops to disappear into thin air and, then, take such a lackadaisical, nonchalant, apathetic approach to resolving the problem?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Until ESL parents storm the school board meetings and express their disgust, short of criminal investigation and prosecution this will be one more chapter in the continuing saga of business as usual in ESL.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com.