US: South Carolina school district to report nearly 4,000 laptops stolen

Nearly 4,000 student laptops are missing in one South Carolina school district and officials say they will soon have to turn the matter over to police.

Greenville County’s public school district has been trying to recover the Chromebooks, valued at almost $1.2 million, since June. Initially 4,992 machines were missing, Greenville County Schools spokesman Tim Waller said. Recovery efforts turned up another 800 and families reported that an additional 208 were lost or stolen, he said.

“We will report whatever information is necessary to recover our devices,” Waller told The Post and Courier. “That may include the names of parents/guardians.”

With nearly 4,000 machines still unaccounted for, the district will have to submit an insurance claim. The only way the claim will be honored, Waller said, is if the machines have been reported as lost or stolen to local law enforcement.

“Since the end of the last school year, there have been multiple, multiple attempts to get these Chromebooks back,” Waller said.

Parents and guardians of children who failed to give their laptops back at the end of the school year have been contacted five or six times by phone, email and with visits to their homes, he said.