Delray charter's new computer lab burglary target

"This is devastating. This was a true crime against these children," said Joseph Bernadel, the school's co-founder and chief operating officer.

When Robin Le Mare, the school's media specialist, stopped by the school Saturday morning, he found the lab's door pried open, a piece of the wall and the door's window removed, and all nine new, Apple desktop computers worth $11,000 gone, Bernadel said.

Police estimate the crime occurred between 7 p.m. Friday, when Le Mare stopped by the lab to make sure the door was locked and the alarm was on, and 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

Toussaint L'Ouverture, a charter school of 170 students, most of whom are Haitian and come from low- or moderate-income families, has struggled financially for years.

The school moved to five different makeshift locations in seven years, among them a former warehouse that was part of a Delray Beach strip mall, before settling into its home at 2501 Seacrest Blvd. in January.

The lab's grand opening took place last week. Members of two families who read about the school's fiscal challenges donated the computers, Bernadel said.

"This was the best thing we had in the school," he said, adding that the monetary loss rises to $15,000 when one adds the software and Internet modems, which were also stolen, and the installation costs.

"We had a tremendous amount of hope and aspiration for this lab," Bernadel said.

"Most of these children don't have their own computer at home and were so happy and excited to have the opportunity to learn how to use them here."

The school developed a plan to have students acquire not only basic but also advanced computer skills at this lab. Two classes of 10 students each had begun their training.

The school does have other computers, which also had been donated, but they are "too slow, they take more than 10 minutes to even turn on, and are antiquated, with very limited software" Bernadel said.

Because of the theft, the kids that were in the computer classes will have to take other electives, he said.

The students will come back from spring break April 14.

Bernadel says he has "no idea how we're going to replace them (the computers). We're a poor school and have many other needs.''

"This is a terrible, terrible crime," he said.

"This is not just simply robbing a school of a bunch of machines. That would be very trivial. This is robbing these children of their dreams."