Parents frustrated over recurring thefts at Streamwood High

Nick Pryor has a recurring problem.

The Streamwood High School sophomore, a member of the baseball team, has to carry cash on hand for batting practice.

Only it keeps getting stolen out of his athletic locker before he can pay up.

"The first time we heard it happened, we screamed at him," his mother, Cindy, said. "'Why are you carrying money around?' He said he had to have cash, for practice."

A few days later, Nick's money was stolen again, bringing the total this semester to $70.

Nick isn't alone.

Of Elgin Area School District U-46's five high schools, Streamwood consistently has the highest number of thefts, according to district data.

Howard Krick, whose daughter Kelsey's $400 iTouch was stolen recently out of her purse during English class, told the U-46 school board this week that parents have calculated that more than $30,000 in thefts have occurred at the school this year.

District Safety Coordinator John Heiderscheidt, who tracks such things, says that figure is possible.

Last year, more than 200 thefts were reported at Streamwood, Heiderscheidt said, at least double the number at any other school.

The problem with that figure, he said, is the data isn't "clean," meaning that some reported thefts turn out to be lost or misplaced items.

Still, many are convinced that theft has become part of the culture at the Streamwood school.

The majority of thefts, Heiderscheidt said, are occurring in the boys locker room.

Those lockers, whose contents can be seen through a grate, are poorly made, Heiderscheidt said.

But, he said, "locks are for honest people. It comes back to basic human nature. It comes back to supervision."

Theft, according to the U.S. Department of Education, is the most common crime to occur at high schools across the country.

Several parents, including Cindy Pryor and Krick were so frustrated about the situation that they organized a meeting last week with district officials.

Along with learning what the school is doing to prevent thefts from occurring, the 100 parents present also got to see, first hand, how their kids' stuff is being stolen.

"They took us down to the locker room, and one kid who was there literally showed us that if you pull the locker enough, it pops right open," Cindy Pryor said. "He popped all these lockers open - probably four or five in a matter of seconds."

At Streamwood, officials say, the number of thefts is down this year due to precautionary measures put in place. As of December, the school had 72 thefts reported, compared with 104 last school year, Heiderscheidt said.

Streamwood Athletic Director Steve Gertz said two individuals - one teacher and one dean's assistant - monitor the locker rooms during the first and last five minutes of a class period.

A locker room attendant's hours have been extended from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and locker room doors now lock after athletic teams come into change. Still, several gaps of time remain when the locker room is left unsupervised.

The school has added a tip line for those with information about thefts. And twice a year, Streamwood police officers come to campus to offer a free engraving service for students' valuables.

Streamwood Principal Oscar Hawthorne said the district plans to reinforce the lockers sometime between the spring and the fall.

As part of the $475,000 grant U-46 schools and the Streamwood Police received last summer, Heiderscheidt said, several security cameras will be installed at the high school.

"We'll never put cameras in a locker or a bathroom," but we can certainly put cameras outside the access to those doors," he said. "Cameras aren't the be-all end-all. But they will help us get a handle on the comings and goings."

Still, parents are worried. "If you leave your furniture out on your front lawn and go to work, is somebody gonna steal it?" asked Rick Brogan, an Itasca police crime prevention officer and Streamwood parent. "U-46 is cutting back. Who are you going to put in there to supervise things all the time? I'm not pointing a finger. (The school) could have dodged the bullet. They didn't. ... But the quality of life in a school is just as important as the education."