3 minors arrested for vandalizing KagES

Three juveniles have been apprehended and are now in custody for allegedly vandalizing Kagman Elementary School.

According to Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Deleon Guerrero, the three are being detained at the juvenile detention facility in Kagman and have been charged with burglary, theft, and criminal mischief.

Rep. Larry Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune that the alleged “vandals was apprehended last week.”

Deleon Guerrero confirmed this, saying the minors were arrested Thursday last week, May 29, based on arrest warrants issued by Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph Camacho. Their bail was set at $20,000 cash each.

In a later statement, DPS said the suspects are students of ChaCha Ocean View Junior High School and are residing in Kagman.

According to Deleon Guerrero, he already told KagES principal Ruth Calvo of the arrest of the three juveniles early yesterday morning.

In a separate interview, Calvo said she just wants to “make sure that justice is done, not just for the school but for the community that was affected by all of this.”

“Whatever happens, justice has to be done for the community at large because it’s their school,” Calvo said.

Kagman Elementary School was last vandalized on May 5, 2014. In that incident, “they broke into the cafeteria and messed everything up pretty good,” Calvo said.

Calvo said that industrial cleaning materials—Clorox, Pine Sol, wax, and other sanitation products—were dumped on the floor and tables of the cafeteria.

“They even took milk and juices and slashed them with a knife and spilled them all over the cafeteria. Those are commodities that our children could have used,” Calvo said.

KagES first fell victim to unidentified vandals on March 22, 2014, damaging potted plants and water faucets and littering the campus hallways. The second incident happened on April 2, causing further harm to the campus.

According to her, the vandals tore down posters in front of classroom doors, tore down plants, used mud to “decorate” the ceilings and floors, and left bathroom faucets turned on all night.

“To prevent us from saving up water, they actually broke the pipe last time. This time around they broke two pipes,” Calvo said.

This led to the school shutting down their water supply just so they could save water. Calvo said that Kagman High School sent their maintenance staff to help fix the pipes.

She said the culprits were close to vandalizing the school’s only stage but somebody saw them and they ran off.