Science teacher Sherri Gingrich walked into her Whittier Woods classroom Nov. 22 to find the windows cracked, glass strewn across the floor and a huge piece of concrete sitting by a lab table.

Her windows, ruined by BB gun pellets and rocks, were the first victims in a series of unresolved vandalism cases at Whitman.  Since then, two other teachers’ windows have been damaged in similar instances.

BB gun pellets hit three of the four windows in her science classroom, Gingrich said, leaving behind cracks that have to be covered with duct tape as she waits for building services to fix the windows.

Additionally, an estimated six-inch diameter rock crashed through the fourth window in her room, breaking the window and denting the blinds, she said. Building services replaced the window the same day to protect students from the cold weather.

The rock also dented a lab counter before it landed in the back of the room, surrounded by glass, she said.

“You could not have thrown it that far, because if somebody had just thrown a rock through, it would’ve just landed on the lab table,” Gingrich said. “Somebody had to really propel it. It had to be shot out of something, like a pumpkin cannon or a catapult. It took a lot of force to get it to go all the way across the classroom.”

Security hasn’t found the culprit, and the investigation is continuing, Gingrich said. Security cameras revealed no suspicious activity, and the motion detector in the classroom didn’t go off, she said.

Another rock smashed through technology teacher Kevin Pope’s windows, whose classroom is in the second floor technology wing. He said he found a rock and broken glass in the middle of the room the same day as Gingrich, but didn’t see any BB gun pellets. There was no damage to the classroom, he said.

“Let’s face it,” he said. “We’re kind of in the back here, near the field. If people want to do something like that, it’s easy to do.”

Social studies teacher Courtney Osborne had  15 BB gun pellets hit her windows in Whittier Woods Dec. 1, Gingrich said. This incident happened more than a week after the original ones, which is what Gingrich said troubles her the most.

“The problem is that it’s escalating,” Gingrich said. “What’s scary to me is that they had to be on the gated Kenwood Park Children’s Center playground to get to Ms. Osborne’s room.”

The attacks don’t seem to target specific teachers, Gingrich said.

“I was surprised when I heard that it was done in other parts of the school,” Pope said. “It made me feel better, like my room wasn’t targeted.”

Math teacher Michelle Holloway, whose classroom is also in Whittier Woods, said she isn’t particularly worried about the windows in her classroom.

“It’s kids being ridiculous,” she said. “I don’t think a kid would be bold enough to approach this window during the school day because there are so many cars and people out here.”

The damage seems to happen after school hours, when students and staff aren’t at school, Gingrich said.

“It’s scary,” she said. “If a student had been sitting here during the day, the rock would’ve gone right to the head.”