Paying the price for vandalism
When my wife first noticed the broken windows on Juneau-Douglas High School's new atrium on Monday morning during our drive to work, I shrugged them off as accidents, thinking maybe some construction-related mistake must have caused them to break or some other improbable thing like that. Call me an optimist.
Imagine my surprise to find out that not only were they not accidents, but that those windows were actually shot out by someone. Not one, not two, but five windows, intentionally shot out by some unthankful soul. Being a past victim of vandalism, I know how personally violated I felt when my own property was damaged. To see those brand new windows shot out and vandalized is just sickening. We all are paying for that school to be renovated, we all have a little ownership in that building and we should all be sickened by this act.
People often wonder why Juneau doesn't get "cool" stuff and this is a good reason. Whenever "cool" stuff is built, someone is there to deface, defile or destroy it. Hopefully, those responsible for this particular crime will be caught and will pay for what they did. If not, I guess it's time to push Juneau one more step towards becoming a big city by installing surveillance cameras around the school to catch irresponsible vandals in the act, so that taxpayers and, more importantly, students don't have to suffer the consequences.
Jason Soza
Juneau