{"id":161070,"date":"2026-02-03T00:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161070\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:24:09","slug":"virgin-mary-statues-defaced-religious-articles-vandalized-at-catholic-school-ransacked-overnight-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161070\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Mary statues defaced, religious articles vandalized at Catholic school ransacked overnight \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the principal of Holy Innocents School arrived on campus Monday morning, she noticed something strange. The door leading to the hall where children attend mass each day was ajar, so she sent her son to look inside.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Mommy, it\u2019s trashed,\u2019\u201d Principal Cyril Cruz remembered him saying when he returned. Cruz ran to look inside for herself and discovered that the assembly hall, chapel and classrooms had been broken into and vandalized.<\/p>\n

Statues of the Virgin Mary were smashed \u2014 hands and at least one head chopped off. Prayer books were dumped from bookshelves and strewn across the floor. The tabernacle had been ripped from its chapel, its doors pried partially open. Snack boxes, raided. Guitars and musical instruments, damaged. Curtains pulled down, cabinets torn from the walls. Audiovisual equipment was pillaged from closets and stacked on carts. The internet had been cut. Tiny peg dolls, used for teaching the youngest students, ransacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like my home,\u201d Cruz said, adding that she felt unsettled and violated. Above all, she expressed disbelief that someone would do this to the 300 children in grades TK-12 who attend the parochial school in Southeast Wrigley.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Staff and parents were unsettled by the damage, which included several smashed statues at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach. Photo courtesy Tony Tripp.<\/p>\n

School staff called Long Beach police around 7 a.m., according to Tony Tripp, director of advancement. About four hours later, they arrived on the scene \u2014 and once they saw the damage, Tripp said officers expressed alarm at its extent.<\/p>\n

Little is known about the perpetrators. Long Beach police said the \u201cpreliminary investigation indicates that unknown suspect(s) broke into a school and stole multiple items.\u201d Indeed, Tripp suspects more than one person burgled the school, because soda bottles had been opened, spilled and tracked across the floor \u2014 by multiple shoeprints, he said. The police forensics team arrived soon after to look for evidence, Tripp and Cruz said.<\/p>\n

Tripp was unable to discern what had been stolen due to the disarray and active crime scene. But he was beginning to inventory the cost of the damage, which he called \u201cdefinitely a high amount.\u201d One statue of the Blessed Mother, which has been in the school since 1958, was worth at least $40,000, he said. Another statue in the atrium was valued around $10,000. Many of the religious articles couldn\u2019t be priced, as they had been handmade by the sisters, Tripp said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sister Mary walks past the assembly hall while Long Beach police forensics investigate damage to the assembly hall, chapel, and classrooms at Holy Innocents Catholic School in Long Beach on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Cruz canceled mass, normally held in the assembly hall, but she kept the school open. Around noon, the students gathered for a rosary procession on the campus, avoiding the barricade tape around the crime scene. The sisters encouraged students to pray for the \u201ctragedy that\u2019s happened\u201d and for \u201cthe people who did it\u201d \u2014 that they reflect on their actions and \u201ceither turn themselves in or stop their life of crime,\u201d Tripp said.<\/p>\n

High-ranking clergy and officials, including the regional bishop, archdiocese officials and representatives from the Department of Catholic Schools, visited the site in the morning and were in agreement: \u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019ve never seen anything like this,\u2019\u201d Tripp said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Whoever vandalized Holy Innocents School left smashed statues and damaged icons in their wake. Photo courtesy Tony Tripp.<\/p>\n

Marianne Dyogi, who has four children in the school and one recently graduated, sat with other parents in the courtyard and looked at photos of the damage, which she called heartbreaking \u2014 especially because the space where children learn the foundation of their faith had been destroyed. She said friends across Los Angeles and Orange counties have reached out in support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Mrs. Cruz still wanted everyone here today is really important, because no one was sent home in confusion,\u201d Dyogi said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for how she leads.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the principal of Holy Innocents School arrived on campus Monday morning, she noticed something strange. The door…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-161070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}