At 7:39 p.m. on January 28, Minta Christopherson received activations from the roof/HVAC access area of a Portland-area elementary school and dispatched the school’s appointed patrol service. When she received another alarm from a portable classroom door, Minta updated the patrol officer, who was en route, about the activity.

When the officer arrived, he found an SUV parked in front of the school. He went to portable classroom #3, which was locked but had lights on inside. As he neared classroom #2, he saw two males walking down the wheelchair ramp. He approached them and asked what they were doing. They claimed they were skateboarding on the campus when the realized that the shed was unlocked. They went inside the shed to get out of the rain. The officer noticed that both men were carrying orange rubber gloves and that one was carrying a backpack. The suspects admitted to having also entered classrooms #1 and #2 by forcing entry through the doors. They did not admit to taking anything.

The frames around both doors were cracked.

Knowing that the initial alarm had come from the roof, The officer asked if they had been on the roof. They said yes; they had climbed onto the covered walkway to gain access. At that point, the officer called Hillsboro Police.

When the police questioned the suspects, they found out that the orange gloves had been taken from the shed in order to prevent the suspects from leaving fingerprints. One suspect also admitted to having drugs and drug paraphernalia with him.

At 8:35, the suspects were arrested under charges of trespassing, burglary and drug possession.

As the police officers took the suspects away, the patrol officer inspected the classrooms. He found that the door jams on classrooms #2 and #1 had split from the force of entry. In classroom #1, the officer found an opened desk drawer with some items removed. A purse and a small bottle of Canadian maple syrup were on the desk.

A small purse and bottle of Canadian maple syrup had been removed from a desk.

A maintenance employee from the school district also inspected the school. He discovered that two of the five small doors in the boiler room had been unsecured by the suspects. He found that the suspects had entered through the small doors on the roof and exited out of the larger doors.

Sonitrol Pacific is proud to secure schools like this one in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. If you are interested in finding out more about school security systems, including access control, intrusion detection, and panic button systems for your school district, contact us on our website or call 1-800-898-1899.