Around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 7, an unidentified person trespassed onto the Westridge campus, roaming the grounds for several minutes before breaking into an Upper School Latin classroom. The intruder smashed the glass door with an unknown object.
When students and faculty arrived on campus just hours later, they were met with police presence as officers examined the crime scene.
Mr. Hector Martinez, Campus Safety and Security Manager, added that the suspect was caught on Westridge’s security footage. It appears that after breaking into the classroom and smashing the door with “something we believe may be a rock,” the individual immediately left campus.
It is believed that the individual has no affiliation with Westridge. “There is video footage of this person acting a little abnormal…It definitely seems to be a random act,” Mr. Martinez said. In a police report obtained by Spyglass, the intruder was reported to be a thin, bald male, wearing a baseball hat, windbreaker jacket, Dickies pants, and a dark backpack.
Though he could not conclude with complete certainty, Mr. Martinez believes the man gained entry to the Westridge campus by jumping over a fence in the early hours of the morning. At that time, there were no security officers present on campus.
Following the recent incident of “vandalism,” as described by Mr. Martinez in a schoolwide email, a security guard is now present on campus 24 hours a day, every day, for the foreseeable future. Moreover, Mr. Martinez said, “We’re also looking to increase surveillance camera coverage to ensure our guards can monitor more areas of campus.”
Westridge does have a security system for burglaries, which was activated during the unknown suspect’s intrusion. Police responded to the alert and patrolled the campus but left after seeing no unusual activity or damage to the campus. Mr. Martinez suggested that the officers may have missed the shattered door due to its location in a peripheral corner of the Rothenberg Humanities building.
Nothing from inside the classroom was taken or damaged—the only change upon initial entry was a desk drawer open, belonging to Upper School Spanish Teacher Dr. Jessica Perez del Toro. After her examination, she concluded that nothing was stolen from the room.
Dr. Hilary Malspeis, the classroom’s primary teacher who is responsible for its shelves filled with Latin dictionaries, stuffed animals, and blankets, described her reaction to the vandalism as “confusion.” “I’m glad nobody was here. I’m glad nobody was hurt and that nothing was really damaged, except for just a door,” she said.
Though the glass pane of the door has yet to be replaced, a panel of wood now stands in its place. For the first day while investigations were underway, students were moved to the Fish Room. Soon after, Dr. Malspeis, her Latin students, and every other Westridge community member who uses the classroom were allowed back in.
Besides the addition of security through the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning, no other immediate changes are being made to Westridge’s security processes. “We want to make sure the students and the community are safe. What happens in those hours of darkness when there’s no one here is kind of what we’re discussing right now,” Mr. Martinez said.
He continued, “We’re hoping that having a guard overnight during the week may prevent things like this from happening in the future.”
