Speaking at a news conference with federal and local law enforcement officials, Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb angrily called the suspects "thieves and thugs."
"This is about stealing educational opportunity directly from our students, and we aren't going to stand for it," he said.
Some of the thieves, captured on videotape wearing ski masks, were former DPS students and some were gang members, he said. "It says a lot about the culture we're dealing with."
Bobb pledged to halt what he said were continuing thefts of district property by installing more surveillance cameras and possibly carting in huge safes to protect computers from thieves.
At Tuesday's news conference, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she planned to charge the suspects in connection with the theft of more than 100 computers valued at more than $158,000.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100...#ixzz10HmOJHnW

Is it just me, or does something seem wrong here?

Later in the article it goes on to describe how the thefts occured from 4 different schools, some of them hit multiple times. So the schools have dozens of laptop computers just laying around unsecured? After the 1st school was broken into, the administration did not ensure that word was spread throughout the district to secure laptops in other buildings?

The value of these 100 laptops was over $158,000? Why in the world is the school district paying $1500 apiece for a laptop? A quick visit to BestBuy.com reveals 8 laptops currently priced under $400. I'm sure with the volume that a district would purchase additional discounts would apply.

Reading this, I see more of the "thieves and thugs, stealing educational opportunities directly from the students" at the adminstrative level. Truly sad.