By Staff Writer, Narek Papukyan

Scrambling to get to class on time, you forget to lock your locker. You return during lunch to find your locker damaged and robbed of many important books and personal items missing. Unfortunately, neither the security nor the administration are willing to help in the investigation.

            “Throughout a daily basis, vandalism strikes innocent students, with none of them being able to protect themselves against it,” Boyan Kartolov (’07) said. “Lockers are seen tagged with sharpies and spray-paint, while others are jammed and bent at the opening.”

            During the past six months vandalism in the Glendale Unified School District accounted for over $35,000 in damages, labor, and materials.

For example, the girls’ restroom on the third floor was closed on Jan. 12 for repairs because of vandalism. Due to irresponsible students, the restroom remained closed for an additional week because it had to be repainted and patched up.

In the restrooms, paper towel and soap dispensers are broken off the walls, and the paper and soap are sprawled all over the floors.

Sandy Paytaryan (’07), who had her locker door forcefully bent out of place in December, said “I am worried that people will steal things from my locker.” She thinks that more security guards and cameras could be beneficial.

“I came to my locker, [and] found a condom on [it],” Mason Hill (’10) said. Occurring in late November of last year, he said it was an awkward situation to be in.

Besides the lockers, other areas, such as the classroom windows, are frequent targets. The windows in front of the attendance and administrators office are carved on and tagged. The windows in front of the attendance and administrators office are carved on and tagged. Just this week the call button for the elevator on the third floor of the new building was broken.

 “There should be a gate built to protect the windows in the front of the school,” one of the school’s security guards Rouben Shahnazarian said. “All of the security guards should gather for a meeting to plan better [enforcement tactics].”

Shahnazarian noted that there were no lights on during the summer, which made neighbors nervous about the security of their neighborhood.

The students and the security personnel alike agree that more security guards need to be hired to better protect the school.

School security guard Rafik Zograbyan stated that “we are seeing fewer incidents this year.” He said it is because the school security is more alert of when and where these students strike, and they have better secured those areas.

Hearing the security guards’ statements, some students disagree.

“I had my history book stolen from my locker last week,” Artem Khachatryan (’07) said, who found his locker breached by someone.

Assistant Principal Hagop Eulmessekian said that “security is doing a much better job and being more cautious. It is the victim’s fault 90 percent of the time, because they do not secure their personal belongings [well] enough.”

Eulmessekian reasoned that students need to be more careful and take better ownership of their belongings.