Holy Trinity Catholic School Division spent an extra $4,000 this past August to replace four 75-inch televisions at St. Michael School after thieves allegedly stole the TV screens from the gymnasium.
School division staff delivered the four TVs to the school gym on Aug. 17, with the intent of installing the devices in classrooms the next day. However, when staff arrived to install the TVs on Aug. 18, the TVs were missing and presumed stolen, according to a news release from the Ministry of Education about losses that boards of education reported from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, 2020.
Holy Trinity conducted an internal investigation by reviewing security footage, but found nothing to indicate who might have stolen the TVs. Division staff also inspected doors and entrances for forced signs of entry but did not find any damage.
When staff in the division’s information technology (IT) department reported that the TVs were missing, Holy Trinity responded by attempting to retrace the employees’ steps to see if the losses could be mitigated, explained education director Sean Chase.
“It was disappointing to lose those items, but we did our due diligence to track them down and unfortunately weren’t able to find any types of sources in terms of who someone went about stealing them,” he added.
Staff Sgt. Randy Jesse with the Moose Jaw Police Service confirmed that the organization received a complaint from school staff on Aug. 25, 2020 about four boxed TVs worth about $3,600 that were allegedly stolen between Aug. 17 and 18. Police believe the items were taken from an unsecured door in the school that was not under video surveillance.
Jesse added that he could not say anything more about the situation since the investigation is still ongoing.
IT staff dropped off the TVs at the school as part of a technology refresh throughout the division. Holy Trinity is replacing all outdated SMART boards with high-definition TVs to which teachers and students can connect wirelessly with their phones, tablets or other devices.
While $4,000 in technology is not a large amount, the alleged theft did force the division to shuffle money to compensate for the loss of funding in the technology refresh plan, Chase said. Moreover, Holy Trinity quickly replaced the TVs since they are a critical piece of the refresh throughout division classrooms.
Holy Trinity Roman Catholic School Division was unable to make an insurance claim on the televisions due to the value of the technology versus the division’s deductible, he continued. Meanwhile, after reviewing the school’s security footage and finding no evidence of a breach, IT staff did not believe there was a need to update security at the school.
“I think the process that is there and the reporting of this case is a good accountability measure on behalf of the ministry,” added Chase. “No one ever wants to see your school division show up on something like this, but from our standpoint, when our investigation shows there was not a mistake or negligence on behalf of ours, it’s kind of what happens.”
