Farmington schools report beer bottles, syringes, motorcycles on playgrounds

Beer bottles, syringes and motorized vehicles have been showing up on Farmington school playgrounds, and district officials say the problem is worst at sites where children are supposed to be safe. Farmington Municipal Schools is now asking the public to report suspicious activity on school grounds when school is not in session, as it weighs how to protect open spaces that remain accessible after hours and on weekends.

The district said it has documented video from April showing young children riding motorcycles through an elementary school playground. No one was injured, but officials said the image underscored the risk to students, staff and property. The district said it has spent “millions of dollars” over the past five to 10 years on new playgrounds, fencing and security measures, and that the misuse of school grounds is threatening that investment.

Most of the reported activity has centered on Animas Elementary School, Country Club Elementary School and McCormick Elementary School. At Animas, the district said it has found syringes and beer bottles, along with unauthorized events and trash left behind last year. At Country Club and McCormick, the main problem has been liquor bottles. The district said it does not track trespassing on fields or playgrounds, and that most of those areas are generally left open to the public after school hours and on weekends.

When vandalism rises to the level of Criminal Damage to Property, the district said it is tracked through the Farmington Police Department. The safety message now coming from Farmington Municipal Schools is aimed at prevention before the damage gets worse. The district says its approach relies on best practices from the U.S. Department of Justice, SchoolSafety.gov-affiliated groups and the State of New Mexico, with anonymous reporting and threat assessment among its tools.

The district’s safety team is led by Dale Bode, a retired Farmington police lieutenant hired in 2019, and Assistant Safety and Security Supervisor Albert Boognl, who joined in 2023 after two decades with the Farmington Police Department. Cody Diehl serves as superintendent, and the district has tied the playground problem to a broader campus safety picture that has included past threats.

In May 2023, Heights Middle School was placed on emergency lockdown after a report of a gun on campus turned out to involve a toy gun. Farmington police statistics cited by the Tri-City Record showed about 50 school threat reports in the 2022-23 school year, and the district said at the time that threats had increased while disruption to learning remained minimal because of cooperation among police, fire and emergency management. For Farmington families, the current playground conditions raise the same question again: whether open school property is being protected well enough after the final bell.