{"id":295551,"date":"2026-05-01T21:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295551\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T21:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:09:17","slug":"ransacked-catholic-school-recovers-from-damage-gets-encouragement-from-the-pope-long-beach-post-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295551\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransacked Catholic school recovers from damage, gets encouragement from the Pope \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a Catholic school in Southeast Wrigley was ransacked in February<\/a>, thousands of community members helped raise more than $300,000 to defray costs for extensive repairs. Nearly three months later, they\u2019re still mending damage, but an outpouring of support has eased their task.<\/p>\n

When the staff of Holy Innocents School first walked onto the campus after the break-in, they were met with horrifying scene: holy statues smashed, bibles strewn on the floor and covered in urine, tabernacle defaced, cabinets and curtains ripped down, audiovisual equipment torn from closets \u2014 vandals had left a trail of destruction in the school\u2019s assembly hall, chapel and classrooms that surprised even police detectives, school staff recalled. Restoring and securing the campus has already cost nearly half a million dollars, according to Tony Tripp, director of advancement.<\/p>\n

\"\"Multiple rooms were discovered ransacked on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach. Photo courtesy Tony Tripp.<\/p>\n

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

Immediately after the incident, staff members said they were in a state of shock, yet they swiftly undertook basic repairs to begin using the space and holding Mass. Within two weeks, intruders broke in again \u2014 entering through a window and stealing instruments, microphones and small items. A spokesperson for the Long Beach Police Department said they are still investigating and have no suspects.<\/p>\n

The second burglary signalled to school staff that they needed to bolster the school\u2019s security. They installed a high-tech security system, remote cameras, alley lighting and custom wrought iron fences \u2014 in addition to hiring a security team. Tripp hopes this will assuage the fears of the sisters, who have been sleeping at a different convent some nights, out of fear of attempted break-ins.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also been significant progress to replace structures and educational and religious items that were stolen or desecrated. The school now boasts a new stage and curtains, overhead lights and air conditioning (the system had been shorted when the burglars tore out the assembly hall\u2019s wiring, making for a \u201csweaty\u201d Lenten service, Tripp said). Contractors have offered the school price breaks, and parents have pitched in to help the sisters remake religious articles, like hand-painted dolls, he said.<\/p>\n

Some fixes will take longer. The school doors are still damaged and will need a full replacement, impossible until the summer, Tripp said. A company from Spain has offered to fabricate a new tabernacle.<\/p>\n

Repairing statues of the Virgin Mary requires meticulous work. Ash Avila of A Mano Art & Design, a specialized art company in Dana Point, said one statue is completely destroyed from the waist up: \u201cThere\u2019s no upper half of her.\u201d Avila is trying to salvage as many statue shards as she can, but some will need to be reconstructed from scratch, a process that will take months, she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Juan Santana, left, and Fernando Herrera put up new fencing at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\"\"A crew install stage curtains at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Despite all the disruption, \u201cthe kids are super duper resilient,\u201d Tripp said. Just weeks after the vandalism, the school\u2019s senior class had an audience with Pope Leo XIV. Tripp recalled that his students said, \u201cWe need to pray for who did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Repairs will help the school community heal from the \u201cconstant reminder\u201d of what happened, Tripp said, referring to the remaining damage as \u201cscars.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes to have the campus in order in time for the school\u2019s gala in October. \u201cWe\u2019re using that as a thank you to all the people that restored the spot,\u201d he said. After that, the school staff can turn their attention to a long-awaited expansion<\/a> that will increase the school\u2019s capacity from 300 to 500 and include a new midcentury modern building to match Holy Innocents\u2019 existing architectural style.<\/p>\n

The school is still accepting donations here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a Catholic school in Southeast Wrigley was ransacked in February, thousands of community members helped raise more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-295551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295551","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=295551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}