On December 20th, 2023, history teacher and Co-Dean of Student Engagement Dr. Nancy Banks announced, in a school-wide email, that this year’s newly established school store had been vandalized and would be closed until further notice.
The news came as a shock to the entire community. Secretary of the School Store Rachel Shames (Form V), who led the store’s operations, said, “It has been upsetting because I, and many others, have worked incredibly hard to put this together.”
Shames started planning the school store in August in collaboration with FSG Presidents Sophie Basner (Form VI) and Remy Lipman (Form VI), as well as Dr. Banks and Ms. Motolla. “Because the store has not been open since before the pandemic,” said Shames, “I essentially had to build it up from the ground.” After months of preparation, Shames and a team of dedicated volunteers set up shop in room 504. They went on to operate a successful and profitable enterprise, earning over $1,250 in profits that would be put to lowering ticket prices for the senior prom.
A few days before winter break, Shames entered the store and found the box that held the store’s supplies and money unlocked. “I knew something was wrong because I always lock up,” said Shames. Practically all of the food kept in the store was stolen, including over 40 fruit roll-ups, as well as hundreds of dollars of money.
Faculty members were immediately notified about the incident. According to Assistant Principal for Student Life Rashad Randolph, investigators consulted security cameras that monitor the hallway in which the robbery took place; however, due to poor image quality and the fact that so many students go in and out of room 504 every day, they were unable to identify the culprit(s).
At an assembly several weeks later, Upper School Principal Stacey Bobo announced that an additional sum of money had also been stolen from Ms. Motolla’s office. While it is possible that the same people were responsible for both robberies, there is currently no evidence to support that conclusion.
As of right now, investigators have not been able to identify the offenders in either case, and are hoping that any student who knows about or took part in either robbery will step forward and reveal their information to the community.
