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Saturday October 13, 2007
Local
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Youth learning center vandalized-again
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
The Koblerville Youth Learning Center was vandalized again yesterday by a suspected group of young people armed with a baseball bat and rocks.
Two glass windows-one at the main office and the other at the Resource Center-were smashed. Cracked glasses littered the floor of the building.
“We're very outraged about this. Unfortunately, we have these young people who are doing this to their own center. And it is disheartening,” Youth Affairs Office's special assistant Mike Manglona told Saipan Tribune.
Manglona said it is not the first time, but the fourth or fifth vandalism “so far this year.”
He said the employees discovered the incident when they reported to work yesterday at 8am.
A baseball bat was found outside the building. Rocks were found inside the center.
Manglona said that on Thursday afternoon a group of youths threatened one of the youth program assistant that they were going to come back and break the windows of the center.
“They were angry that the center was being closed. It was time for closing and it was time to go home,” he said.
The center is an after-school program where children hang out after school and avail of the tutoring services and homework sessions.
The educational tools in the center are all donations from community members for the youths and for the people of Koblerville.
“It is really, really sad that this happened and unfortunately it was due to young people who are destructive,” Manglona said.
Police responded to the scene and investigated the incident.
The Youth Affairs Office is hoping that the Department of Public Safety will arrest these “young thugs” to teach them lessons and prevent another similar incident in the future.
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This is not the first time that this Youth Center has been vandalized and it makes me mad that our efforts to do many positive things in our community are thwarted by the actions of a few. I would like DPS to check on the parents of these kids to see how involved they are in their kids' lives.
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3 comments:
There is a lot of bad parenting here on this island. The kids reveal a lot of horrible things about their homelife in their essays. A lot of parents are off island permanently. A lot of just horrible things I won't get into here.
Sad, indeed! All the more reason why it's a tragedy that these kids would lash out at Youth Center staff and vandalize a Center that aims to provide them something positive in their miserable young lives. I just hope they wake up and realize this.
This is really sad to read...
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