Vandalism and theft continue to plague Lakeland High School.  

An incident took place last week in the boy’s locker room. Details of the incident are unclear at this time. 

Unfortunately, this has become a common occurrence. 

“This happens weekly around here and can happen multiple times a week,” armed guard John Hatcher said. “It’s not tolerated and I’ll spend a lot of time trying to figure out who did it, including questioning people.” 

Vandalism not only affects the students but also affects our custodians the most. 

They spend a lot of their time fixing carvings in the bathrooms and taking the time to sand them down and then having to repaint them, but if it’s sharpie or other materials then they still have to spend their own using different cleaning materials to clean off the vandalism. 

“Show some pride in the schools, and it is the only building we have and what we got for an extended period of time,” Hatcher’s said. 

“The boy’s locker room is a great example of this,” Vice principal Jimmy Hoffman stated. “Every year we have to replace the ceiling tiles in the locker room from students throwing stuff up at the ceiling and damaging it.” 

“If something like spray painting a wall happens at the high school we will find out exactly who did it and how much it costs, every dime counts essentially,” Hatcher said.  

If students were caught, depending on what they did — either theft or vandalism wise — the student would be charged with malicious injury to property. 

Ezra Benson, a freshman at Lakeland High School, had one pair of basketball shoes and track spikes stolen out of the boy’s locker room. 

“It is my fault for not putting them in the locker, but at the same time, I feel like I should not have to worry about people taking my stuff out of the locker room,” Benson said.

Hatcher says that most thefts happen among freshmen and sophomores, which is mainly shoes, sweatshirts, and cash. 

Being charged as a misdemeanor is up to one thousand dollars and a felony is one thousand dollars and up, including replacement costs. 

“This has been something that has been happening for some time now, and we have to do something about it,” Hoffman said.