Private Schools Battle Surge In Laptop Theft

The Sunday Age

Sunday November 23, 1997

Maree Curtis

LAPTOP computers are becoming a millstone for Melbourne's private schools, forcing them to increase security after a spate of recent thefts.

Principals who spoke to 'The Sunday Age' said laptop theft had increased in recent months.

Wesley College's principal, Mr David Loader, said the machines were becoming the "video recorders of 10 years ago".

"You can pick them up and walk out and there is now a huge market for second-hand laptops," he said. "We have upped security and are looking at increasing it more. We already have patrolling guards and we are looking at boom gates for cars coming and going."

Xavier College's director of marketing, Mr John Foley, said one 15-year-old student's computer was stolen after he was followed off a train.

"We had three stolen in one day from bags left on the oval, and one or two others have gone," Mr Foley said. "Security is always a problem when you are walking around with $3000 worth of hardware over your shoulder."

Most schools encourage or require students to carry their laptops in their schoolbags, and St Leonard's College is having special backpacks designed to carry them.

St Leonard's principal, Dr Timothy Hawkes, said four computers had been stolen this year. "The best security is to pay the insurance premium," he said.

Dr Hawkes said technology had created the problem and should be used to find the solution. "Make the ruddy things smaller and unless the right password is used they will self-destruct," he said

Melbourne Grammar has hired a security expert after 19 notebook computers were stolen from the school recently.

The headmaster, Mr Paul Sheahan, said he was disappointed that such measures needed to be taken. "The school has stringent security in place including a security agent in order to ensure the safety and security of our school and students' property," he said.

Some schools have decided not to introduce laptops. The principal of Eltham College, Mr John Brenan, said the computers were not compulsory.

"I think there are real questions to be asked about computer laptop programs from this point of view," he said. "With the increasing number of PCs in the home, I wonder if it (laptop use) is a wave that will pass."

The vice-principal at Haileybury College, Mr Nicholas Dwyer, said the school had decided "not to go down that track".

"We prefer to use networks in school and the facilities at home so all the students have to take between school and home is a disc," he said.

A spokesman for the Insurance Council of Australia, Mr Rod Frail, said personal electronic equipment generally had become very attractive to thieves.