Smashed and broken pots and overturned plants greeted Columbia Area Career Center Greenhouse Production teacher Sherie Rodekohr Monday when she arrived at the greenhouse.
Assistant director, Randy Gooch said he does not know when the vandalism occurred, but several students’ workbenches were affected. The extent of the damage is still unclear,  Gooch said. The administration filed a formal police report and gave statements about the damage, and the vandalism is being investigated.
“We’re working with our cameras and stuff to see if we can find anything that would lead to some possible suspects,” Gooch said, ” so that’s kind of where we’re at at this point in time.”
The closest cameras are located at the door leading into the CACC, some 100 yards away. Though RBHS will receive some new cameras this year, Columbia Public Schools Director of Security John White said the CACC will not. Lots of factors contribute to the decision of where school buildings place  security cameras, White said. The majority of cameras at RBHS and the CACC have been there since the establishment of the buildings.
“We’re in the process of redoing all of the cameras for RBHS,” White said. “I went in with the administration and [Resource Officer Keisha Edwards], and they mapped out and put where they wanted cameras. It’s a collaboration, and if there’s any pressing issue [in a specific spot].”
Officer Edwards said the schools also take into consideration areas where large concentrations of students congregate, but also empty areas of the school where the administration expects students to go if they expect no one to see them doing something.
RBHS seniors Brianna Thompson and  Briana McClary work at one of the benches that were affected. Around half of their work got broken or damaged, Thompson said. The green house classes hosted a plant sale today, but Thompson said the damaged plants weren’t the ones they were planning on selling.
“It wasn’t stressful as much as it was disappointing because we worked so hard on [the plants],” Thompson said. “I don’t understand why someone would want to smash plants in a green house.”