
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993                   TAG: 9309150116
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TEEN TOLD TO PAY HALF OF VANDALISM DAMAGES

A Botetourt County judge on Tuesday ordered that a 14-year-old pay half of the $21,000 in damages that he helped cause during a two-night vandalism spree at Troutville Elementary School.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Dudley Emick put the boy on probation and ordered that he perform community service.

Another 14-year-old who joined in the destruction will be sentenced later.

The two boys have admitted that they broke into the school the nights of June 7 and 9.

The first night, they stole money from teachers' desks and scribbled crude phrases on a blackboard and a desktop. They set free a rabbit from a first-grade classroom and took a turtle from the room and put it in a secretary's desk.

Two nights later, they used a crowbar to do even more harm, leaving shards of glass and a general mess through much of the school. They smashed the trophy case and poured lemon and cherry drink over computers, a copier and thousands of books.

When the two boys were convicted in July of burglary, theft and property destruction, school officials' estimate of the total damage stood at just over $13,000.

But that has risen as other items have been added in, including a copier that has been declared a total loss. It was worth almost $5,500.

Sheriff's investigators said the boys never gave much of a reason why they did it, beyond "just for the heck of it."

by CNB