Officials with Glen Ellyn School District 41 and the village’s Police Department are investigating a weekend break-in at Hadley Junior High that left thousands of dollars in damage and derogatory comments about teachers scrawled on a classroom door.
Police say someone broke into the school on Hawthorne Street at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday and wreaked havoc in several classrooms. The vandals broke windows, clogged sinks, smashed computers to the ground and poured flour over computers.
School officials estimate at least $50,000 in damages.
The vandals also used a marker to scrawl malicious remarks about two district teachers, police said. Neither police nor school officials would say exactly what was written on the classroom door.
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They also would not identify the teachers.
Supt. Pi Irwin said both teachers were at school Monday morning.
Sgt. Robert Madden said police are tracking down numerous leads, but he declined to say whether the investigation is focusing on students in the district.
Irwin said teachers, janitors and school administrators spent the weekend fixing windows, removing smashed computers and covering up graffiti. By Monday, the classroom was open to students.
“Everyone pulled together to make sure we’d be ready for the students on Monday,” Irwin said. “We did not want this act of vandalism to disrupt our class time.”
In an effort to help find the vandals, Hadley officials on Monday explained to students what happened over the weekend. They also urged any student who knows anything about the incident to report it.
“We tried to be very open about this because we want to communicate that we encourage the sharing of information,” Irwin said.