A number of people came to help clean up the mess left behind Saturday after someone broke into and ransacked Chugach Optional School overnight.
Anchorage School District spokeswoman Heidi Embley said a teacher discovered a man inside the school around 9:30 a.m. Saturday. The teacher called police and they apprehended the man outside the building.
Further exploration of the school building revealed some of what the man had been doing inside. Embley said he came in through a window in a classroom and then “ransacked” various rooms. She said he also urinated in parts of the building, leading to a school-wide sanitation effort. Embley said he also used a few different computers, but it was not yet clear what exactly he had done on them.
She said the school’s community has played a big role in moving past the situation. Current and retired teachers came in on Saturday to assist with the massive cleanup effort, and even some parents chipped in to help.
“That’s a really positive outcome of just a really just a disappointing situation,” Embley said.
The school’s faculty members were doing their best to ensure everything was back in order in time for class on Monday.
“When you come in and you see things damaged or ransacked or everything strewn about, it’s really disappointing, because it’s hard to explain to kids why this happened, because adults don’t really have a good understanding of that,” she said. “But as we’ve seen before, there’s just really great support in our community and we just appreciate that and hope that continues, and we’ll get through it.”
Clare Fulp, the school’s principal, was also on-hand for the cleanup, and echoed similar thoughts.
“I think the community just needs to continue to be part of schools and make sure we’re all working together for kids,” she said.
Anchorage police were not immediately available to comment on the case. The identity of the suspect has not been released.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates. KTVA 11’s Bonney Bowman contributed to this report.
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