iPad thefts challenge Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District: Sharon Broussard

ipad.jpg A band of thieves have forced the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district to ban middle school students from taking home school-issued IPads. Residents, police and the city shouldn't let them get away with it.

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District has a problem -- and it's not just about quaking middle school students being targeted by robbers for their school-owned Apple iPads, although that's a big part of it.

Like many school systems serving inner-ring suburbs, where carefully nurtured youth rub shoulders with those left to their own devices, it has to figure out how to protect its most vulnerable citizens and at the same time turn young predators from a life of crime.

And that brings us to the school district's contentious meeting with parents last Thursday to talk about the frightening thefts of the aforementioned iPads.

The popular tablet computers were distributed this school year to the district's three middle schools -- Monticello, Roxboro and Wiley -- to help students study at home and at school. They came loaded with applications for classroom lessons and homework and were cheaper and lighter than the clunky laptops that had been distributed earlier, said Don Phillips, the district's director of information technology.

The district has loaned laptops to middle school students since 2009 in an effort to make sure that all students have access to computers.

But it turns out the iPads were as tempting to robbers as gold chains once were. A dozen youngsters were cowardly punched or pushed and robbed between Sept. 26 and mid-October, said Cleveland Heights Police Chief Jeff Robertson. No guns were used -- thank goodness -- but it had to be terrifying just the same.

All of the suspects identified so far have been 16 to 18 years old, and some were even enrolled at Cleveland Heights High School, said Robertson.

And it proved hard to get the stolen iPads back because the tracking software was easily thwarted. On Oct. 19, the district had decided that, for their own safety, kids could use the devices only at school, said Phillips.

Last Thursday's meeting at Monticello Middle School was to assess how parents felt about the new policy and whether the iPads should go home again. But there was no consensus among the scores of attendees. Phillips said more meetings might be held in the future.

"It's just not worth my kid's life for a piece of technology," said the mother of one young victim who refused to give her name.

But Beverly Williams, who has a sixth-grader who walks to school, said her son loved using the device for homework.

"We want our iPads back and our kids safe," she said.

She urged the audience to ask their stay-at-home neighbors to look out for youngsters as they walked to and from school.

These are scary times. The newspaper is full of stories about people killed over the stupidest things -- an argument, a girl, a sidelong glance.

But Williams is right: The community ought to stand up to this small band of thugs.

The thefts are more than a police problem. Cleveland Heights and University Heights police have stepped up patrols, on the lookout for the thieves and their enablers -- the buyers of these iPads -- but they can't do it alone.

It's a family problem, too. Parents of these young thieves have to control their teenagers. If they can't, they ought to seek help before a robbery charge becomes a murder charge.

Meanwhile, middle school parents have to make sure that students who walk to school do so together. Stay-at-home neighbors could serve as lookouts on the sidewalk or from their windows.

And finally, it's a city problem, something that Mayor Ed Kelley and Cleveland Heights City Councilwoman Janine Boyd readily recognize. Boyd wants to work with East Side social service organizations to create a city work and mentorship program for youngsters at risk of getting involved in crime and for first-time offenders involved in iPad thefts and other crimes.

And Kelley, Boyd and other City Council members talked to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor-elect Tim McGinty, who promised to quickly process and detain young juveniles so that they get the message that the juvenile justice system is serious business.

If Cleveland Heights and University Heights want to decrease juvenile crime, all hands are needed.

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