Thieves target Aberdeen High tuck shop
Published:Friday | April 22, 2022 | 12:09 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
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The school feeding programme at the St Elizabeth-based Aberdeen High has been hard hit by the theft of a cash register earlier this month. The device, valued at roughly $180,000, was lost in the second break-in at the institution in recent months....
The school feeding programme at the St Elizabeth-based Aberdeen High has been hard hit by the theft of a cash register earlier this month.
The device, valued at roughly $180,000, was lost in the second break-in at the institution in recent months.
Acting Principal Georgia Duhaney-Stewart told The Gleaner that operations at the tuck shop have been severely hampered by the loss, which follows another hit in which a laptop loaded with software to operate the cash register was also stolen.
In the latest incident on April 1, thieves also made off with pastry and other food items.
The tuck shop, she said, is instrumental in generating funds for extracurricular activities and to assist students needing financial assistance.
“It assists when students come to school without adequate funds to purchase their lunch. Sometimes they get food from the tuck shop for that. So with the break-in of the tuck shop, you know that would have impacted the programme significantly,” Duhaney-Stewart disclosed.
“They came in first and took out the laptop [in the first incident] and so now they came back and took out the cash register. So, we are operating without a cash register at this moment,” said the obviously upset acting headmistress.
Duhaney-Stewart, who is in her fourth month of leadership at the school, told The Gleaner that the locks have since been changed and that plans are in high gear to boost the security system with the installation of surveillance cameras, which have already been donated to the institution.
She expressed hope that the CCTV system will “can capture as much as possible the perimeter of the school and focus on the key areas where we would have assets that persons would want to steal”.
The thieves reportedly gained entry in the wee hours of the morning by prying open the doors and removing the locks.
The Personnel Committee of the school board is expected to meet shortly to discuss steps to remedy the situation and replace the stolen items.
“We are trying to see how best we can still function with it like that. We’ve have gotten a number of donations, but not that to replace the cash register,” she said.
Duhaney-Stewart said that with the school recently having top students in mathematics and agriculture in external examinations, she is hoping that the institution will be able to build on those academic successes as it charts the way forward.
The Siloah police are investigating the theft.
With 26 reported incidents since the start of the year, St Elizabeth is seeing a four per cent increase in break-ins compared to the corresponding period last year.