LONG BEACH, California (LifeSiteNews) — Staff arriving at Holy Innocents Catholic School in Long Beach, California, on Monday morning found the school assembly hall, chapel, and classrooms had been ransacked, with smashed statues, ruined images of Our Lady, and the tabernacle knocked to the floor.
Vandals had evidently attempted to break into the tabernacle, but were unsuccessful. “The tabernacle was not breached and the hosts, though damaged, remained inside,” noted a statement by the school.
The school was forced to cancel Mass, though the school was able to open for the day.
One statue of Our Lady, which has been in the school since 1958, was worth at least $40,000, Tony Tripp, director of advancement for the school, told the Long Beach Post. Another was valued around $10,000. “Many of the religious articles couldn’t be priced, as they had been handmade by the sisters,” Tripp said, according to the Post.
After inspecting the damage, Bishop Mark Trudeau said that it is the worst case of vandalism that he’s ever seen in the region.
JUST IN: Severe vandalism discovered at Holy Innocents Parish & School in Long Beach.
Staff arriving this morning found statues destroyed, the church’s sound system ripped out, and signs of an attempted break-in at the Tabernacle.
No suspect description has been released.… pic.twitter.com/RR7XBDTIcB
— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) February 2, 2026
“The sound equipment and that sort of thing was ripped out of the wall,” Tripp told local news outlet, KTLA. “Any closet that was there, everything was pulled out, so we thought, ‘Oh, OK. This is to be expected,’ but what was not to be expected is the sanctuary part. We have a large statue of Mary that was pushed down and destroyed. We had the tabernacle, the gold tabernacle where our Lord is kept here, they tried to break that open to get the host out of there.”
“I want to know why you could do this to kids,” said the school’s principal, Cyril Cruz. “What kind of heart do you have to do this?”
“This is horrific, there are some demonic forces at work in our country,” noted Jeremy Wayne Tate, the leading promoter of classical education in the United States.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division immediately promised to investigate what she described as “an awful crime.”
The @CivilRights will open an investigation into this awful crime. @AGPamBondi https://t.co/MEo6DbUTM5
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) February 3, 2026
Activist Robby Starbuck, a Protestant, and Catholic convert and entertainer Rob Schneider stepped forward and offered to cover the cost of replacing Bibles destroyed in the attack on the school.
There is a wholesome side of X that people either ignore or don’t see. But I love this! @RobSchneider and @robbystarbuck offering to replace bibles. pic.twitter.com/cACjIKQV5L
— Natalie F Danelishen (@Chesschick01) February 3, 2026
The desecration of the Catholic school comes just two weeks after an angry mob stormed a Baptist church in St. Paul, Minnesota, while a Sunday worship service was in progress.
A GoFundMe account created to help the school recover from the vandalism has quickly garnered nearly $90,000 in donations.