By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer
November 19, 2008 12:17 am
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Five elementary and middle-school aged students were arraigned in Muskogee County District Court Tuesday in connection with a break-in at the 7th & 8th Grade Center.
Muskogee Public Schools Police Chief Dan Hall said the break-in occurred around 10 p.m. Friday during the second half of the Muskogee High School football game at Indian Bowl stadium adjacent to the school, 402 N. S St. He said the incident involved two students from the 7th & 8th Grade Center, two from Ben Franklin Science Academy and one from an elementary school.
“The two 7th & 8th Grade Center students were mad at the assistant principal for suspending them,” Hall said.
He said the suspects entered through an unlocked window in an assistant principal’s office by standing on a shopping cart and prying the window open with a screwdriver.
Hall said the students took four laptop computers, a laptop computer docking station and two digital cameras with an estimated value of $12,500. The computers and cameras were retrieved and returned to the school Monday morning, apparently undamaged, he said.
Hall said the incident was caught on video, which campus police viewed Sunday night.
“We got good pictures of the students,” he said.
The students were arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Because they are all minors, no additional information is available from the courts.
Hall said the school usually has a motion detector, and an alarm that goes off if there is a break-in, but the alarm code was not set.
“Normally, an alarm is set when someone leaves a building, so we are trying to find out why the alarm wasn’t set,” Hall said.
He said there is no added security around the school building during football games.
Friday night’s game between MHS and Stillwater High School was the last game of the season. Hall said Bacone College, which plays home games at Indian Bowl, has no more games this season.
“We are trying to figure out how to better serve people on game night,” he said.
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