THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 7, 1995 TAG: 9509070008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Whoever set the fire that has knocked Princess Anne High School out of commission committed a crime that injures the school's teachers and other staffers and students who are necessarily being reassigned, at least temporarily, to other facilities.
Whoever set the fire - and fire investigators are in no doubt the fire was arson - also injures everyone in Virginia Beach and elsewhere whose taxes paid for the school's construction, maintenance and operation and all who will have to help pay for the cleanup and reconstruction and/or rebuilding costs not covered by insurance.
As we are endlessly reminded, there are some who go through life smashing all that is good and true and beautiful, leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces. The gratuitous act of vandalism writ large that destroyed much of Princess Anne High School complicates thousands of lives by adding to the burdens on individuals as well as a municipality that has lately learned, much to its surprise and displeasure, that its school system's budget is $7.4 million in the red. Precisely how that happened and who is to blame will occupy the schools' overseers and others for some time.
The budgeting mess, another disservice to taxpayers, is the fault of grownups. The fire, if experience is a guide, was likely the work of the young. Students were the culprits in previous fires that damaged Beach schools - Bayside High School, First Colonial High School and Virginia Beach Middle School.
Fire investigators have appealed to the public for information that could lead to identification, arrest, conviction and appropriate punishment of whoever is responsible for the destruction at Princess Anne. We share investigators' hope that the plea will be productive. A reward up to $1,000 is being dangled for information that nails the fire setter(s). Linked with guarantees of anonymity for informants, such rewards frequently yield information about criminality that otherwise would be withheld.
May that happen in this instance. Investigators can be reached at 427-4228 or tips may be relayed to the Virginia Beach Crime Solvers, 427-0000.
Meanwhile, cheer on the Princess Anne High School Recovery Group, composed of school-affiliated organizations that are pitching in (by washing vehicles, among other things) to support teachers and students displaced by the fire.
The members of this ad-hoc coalition represent much that is right with public education and with the society beyond the schools too. by CNB