East Valley Students Upset Over Stolen Money

Something unfortunate happened at Coachella Valley High School over the weekend.

“We walk in,” said Mariana Rios, vice president of the Associated Student Body, “and we realize we were broken into. That’s when we ran.”

The ASB’s heavy-duty safe was gone.

The club’s leaders believe the break-in happened sometime between 11:00 p.m. Friday and 7:00 a.m. Saturday during the school’s Homecoming weekend.

School officials say the suspect –or suspects– broke into the back of the ASB office. The stolen money was supposed to fund all of the events for the whole year, including the junior-senior prom.

“They took money,” said ASB representative Alejandra Bayardo, “and they also took our senior experiences because we won’t have enough money to do lots of events that we had planned.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is reviewing surveillance tapes taken from inside the activities office.

A $1,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information leading to an arrest.

ASB leaders have no idea who did it — whether it was a classmate or an adult.

The Arabs won their Homecoming game that Friday night. But now, the school has to work twice as hard to win back all that stolen money.

“Maybe with the economy right now, everyone’s in desperate need of money,” said Rios. “They thought it was easy to take money from students. They didn’t realize it would actually hurt us.”

If you have any information about this incident, call (800) 78-CRIME or report the incident online at www.WeTip.com. You can remain anonymous.