The small regional school experienced two break-ins during the summer holidays, despite having an alarm system.
While nothing was stolen during the first break-in in late December, all the school's laptops were stolen during the second incident, which Dr Farrell believed occurred early on January 12.
Dr Farrell said he was “annoyed” and “disappointed” for his students.
“Some of these kids have had these laptops for most of their school life, and it’s got all their little treasures, and their favourite music and programs,” he said.
“It looks like we’ve lost 15, and at least 12 were allocated to the kids.”
He said he did not understand why the offenders would steal these particular computers.
“They were purchased in early 2016 and early 2017, some purchased in 2013 — it’s like Noah’s Ark stuff,” he said.
“Not worth much, I would’ve thought, except for the people whose laptops they were because of the stuff on them.”
He estimated replacements would cost between $4000 and 5000, not including the cost to fix the “fair bit of mess” caused by the burglary.
While the claim was currently with the insurers, Dr Farrell said he would have to buy new laptops in the meantime.
Zeerust Primary School is not the only small regional school to recently endure a break-in. Last week, Katandra West Primary School was broken into, although nothing was taken.
However, Shepparton Criminal Investigation Unit analyst Brian Peters said the rate of school break-ins across the region — in both city and rural schools — had remained about the same.
“People break into schools all the time, they’re easy targets,” he said.
“You can lock everything away, but they’ll find computers.
“They’ll mainly take a bunch of them, and by the time we find them, the items have been replaced.”
He said it was difficult to increase current levels of security, particularly for small regional schools.
“The schools have all got alarms, and that’s the best they can do.
“Unless they put a security guard on every school every night . . . but that’s not worth it.”
A Department of Education spokesman said all Victorian Government schools had an emergency management plan which detailed what to do in the event of a break-in.
He said schools were required to report break-ins and burglaries to police and the department’s 24-hour Incident Support and Operations Centre.
“This information is used to help schools implement security initiatives, including the provision of targeted security patrols, and the installation of temporary surveillance and intruder detection systems,” he said.
While Dr Farrell said he was not sure what the solution was to improve security at Zeerust Primary, he had a message for those who would commit such a crime.
“They seem to think there’s lots of money in little government primary schools — there just isn’t,” he said.
“We don’t deal in cash, there’s no money to find.
“They’re not taking from the government, they’ve stolen from these children.”
● Shepparton police are requesting anyone with information on these incidents to contact them on 5820 5777.
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