Youth Learning Center vandalized anew

Youth Learning Center acting program coordinator Gloria Kaipat shows the shattered glass panel window at the boy’s restroom of the Koblerville Youth Learning Center. Three drunken school dropouts were tagged as suspects behind the vandalism that occurred last Sunday night. The suspects managed to run away to a jungle area behind the Center. (Ferdie de la Torre)

Three drunken male teenagers allegedly vandalized the Koblerville Youth Learning Center on Koblerville Road last Sunday night.

Police officers responded but the teenagers fled to a jungle area located behind the Youth Learning Center, Saipan Tribune learned.

Youth Learning Center acting program coordinator Gloria Kaipat said using rocks, the suspects destroyed the glass panel window at the boy’s restroom located on the side of the building.

The suspects, who are said to be school dropouts, also broke the light bulb outside on the side of the building.

Kaipat said damage to property was estimated at $700.

Kaipat said the suspects were among the youths hanging outside the center that night.

After the three teenagers became drunk, they tried to open the building’s door.

One boy, who was not drinking, tried to stop them. The suspects got mad at the boy, who decided to leave the place.

The suspects then started breaking the glass window of the building apparently to burglarize the center. A resident in the area, however, called the police.

When police officers arrived, the teenagers ran to a trail in the jungle located behind the center.

Youth Affairs Office special assistant Shalaine Borja said it’s sad that the government is accommodating programs for the children at the center, but still this kind of vandalism is still happening.

“We know the kids. We are trying to contact the authorities,” Borja said.

Borja said to prevent this kind of incident, they are hoping to have a Koban station at the center similar to the one that the Department of Public Safety had recently established at the Youth Manhoben Center in Chalan Kanoa.

Borja said police visibility and extra patrol in Koblerville are important to deter criminal activities.

Two to three months ago, a male teenager also threw rocks, destroying the glass panel at the center’s back door. No item was stolen as a resident in the area called the police. But damage to property was estimated at $1,000.

Police arrested the suspect, who was subsequently deported to Federated States of Micronesia.

Four years ago, the center was burglarized and several items were stolen.

Kaipat and Borja said Rep. Ed Propst (Ind-Saipan) donated an alarm system at the center.