Colton, CA—During the week-long break caused by the recent state of emergency fires, the newly added Mechatronics classroom at Colton High was broken into, after Steam and Mechatronics teacher Daniel Hearon was robbed multiple times this year. 

The Mechatronics class which is currently under construction, had its window broken through, where Hearon is still trying to evaluate what was lost. 

Luckily, the damage of the most recent break-in doesn’t seem to be as impactful as the others “Previous times, they have taken 3D printers, a smoke generator for the wind tunnel and they took all of our tools, basically everything. They took everything that wasn’t bolted down” stated Hearon.

Other programs that have experienced theft in the previous robberies include: Dreamer-Allies Club, Journalism and Publications.

The doors for the Mechatronics class were never keyed, and with exposed windows the intruder could see about $100,000 worth of equipment in the room which could have possibly led the intruder to break through the window.

The first break-in occurred during spring break of the last school year where the majority of the tools were taken, and steam currently only has two-thirds of their needed tools which impacts the students’ learning.

“We’re missing a substantial amount of equipment; the students right now should be doing 3D model printing and they’re unable to do that because we don’t have the equipment,” said Hearon.

As for the new Mechatronics class, it was supposed to be ready by the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. 

However, “it wasn’t ready at all, they hadn’t touched it all summer long, so I had to move the students that were supposed to be in room 507.” stated Hearon; he continued saying “This classroom had no tools to work with. So the students were given assignments on laptops.”