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Published on 04/20/1998 All articles from this issue

School, police officials have no suspects in Oak School fire

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

More than a month after someone set fires at Oak School, police and school officials say they are still following leads but have no suspects.

On two separate incidents, someone set fire to outdoor display cases and school posters. On March 7, an outside display case used to post upcoming events was damaged and spray painted, and numerous signs burned, according to a police report. The next morning, another display case and more posters were set on fire.

"It was really unbelievable," said mother Debbie Mason just after the fire. "It was one of those things you don't expect to happen at our school, but it happened. It's really sad that somebody, somewhere did this to our school."

Mason said the fires had burned themselves out by the time she had arrived at the school at 6:30 a.m. March 7 to open the gate for the school's annual walk-a-thon. All that remained were charred and melted signs, she said.

Principal Dave McNulty said the fires were obviously intentional.

"It's hard to put a message in it, but someone was bent on destruction," he said just after the fires had occurred.

McNulty said he had never seen vandalism at the school "to this severity." He said it looked as though someone had tried hard to start the fires. He said the fires were hot enough to melt the plastic windows on the display cases. He said there were "10 little fires everywhere."

The fire didn't cause a lot of damage, but the campus looked bad, he said.

"Oak is in a less busy neighborhood than a lot of schools. There are fewer people watching it than at others," superintendent Marge Gratiot said. "Sometimes a particular school seems to get more of its share of theft and vandalism. I can't figure out why that is."

Gratiot said the district hired roving security guards to patrol the campus at night and upgraded the school's security system.

Besides a damaged window in the computer lab April 7, McNulty said there have been no more occurrences of vandalism.

"Hopefully, it's over," he said. .

Brent Butler, schools resource officer at the Los Altos Police Department, said he has offered a $100 reward from his own pocket, and has talked with parents and school officials, in attempts to find suspects.

- Joanne Griffith Domingue also contributed to this story.