Lesson in give and take adds to Holocaust project

GROTON -- The school project was designed to help eighth-graders comprehend the horror of the Holocaust: collecting 1.5 million pennies, each one representing a child victim of the Nazis.

``They represent the souls of the people who were killed," said Courtney Payne, 14, who worked on the project when it started in February, and still helps out as a high school freshman this fall . ``The project meant so much."

But in the past week, the Groton-Dunstable Middle School project has turned into a lesson in venality -- and in generosity.

Prosecutors allege that over the past two months, a janitor stole about 120,000 -- $1,200 worth -- of the 267,000-plus pennies brought in by students and donated by customers at area businesses. The custodian allegedly snuck into locked closets at the school at night and pilfered pennies stored in coffee cans, plastic containers, and 5-gallon water jugs, police and school officials say.

Thursday, teacher Niki Rockwell , who started the project, noticed a sizable number of pennies missing from five large water jugs and alerted police.

The theft also did not go unnoticed around town.

Yesterday, in what has become a happy ritual in the last few days, Rockwell was in the main office hugging strangers who heard or read about what happened -- and are dropping off thousands of pennies.

She wrapped her arms around James R. Travis, a New Hampshire accountant who donated 170 pounds of pennies -- he didn't know how many -- he has collected over the last 10 years.

``It's for the kids," Travis said.

Rockwell said she also gave a hug yesterday to a man who rode up on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, reached into his saddle bags, and handed her a plastic piggy bank half-filled with coins. An elderly woman from Hudson, who asked not to be named, showed up with two coffee cans full of pennies -- and she got a hug, too. Another man, who Rockwell would only say was Jewish and was with a US military unit that liberated concentration camps, is sending $5,000 in pennies. A couple donated $1,000.

And at least two Holocaust survivors have contacted Rockwell and volunteered to speak to the students.

Still, there is a sense in the school of betrayal by David L. Graves, the 28-year-old Lowell man charged with stealing the pennies.

But there is compassion, too.

``I wasn't mad," said Stefanie Cappucci, 14, a high school freshman. ``It was more shocking. Why would somebody take the coins? It wasn't taking money from a bank, it was taking money from a charity or a nonprofit."

Added Payne, ``I feel sort of bad for him because, obviously, he was desperate for the money."

Rockwell, a Grade 8 language arts teacher who cheerfully describes herself as an ``old hippie," came up with the pennies project as part of the teaching of the Holocaust to all 200 eighth-graders. She said she is now also instructing students about the criminal justice system and the bedrock principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

``I don't want to see this guy vilified," she said. ``I don't want to put him on the rack. That's for the court system."

Graves pleaded not guilty Monday in Ayer District Court to one count of larceny of more than $250. Investigators also discovered that he had failed to register as a sex offender. Graves was released on condition he register, authorities said.

In 1993, when he was 15, Graves was convicted as a juvenile of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child over age 14, said Charles McDonald, spokesman for the state Sex Offender Registry Board.

Graves's court-appointed lawyer, Roland Milliard of Dracut, said Graves told him he spent the last five years in the Army and did at least one tour of duty in Iraq before being discharged in April. Milliard also said Graves and his wife are expecting their first child within a few months.

Groton-Dun stable Regional School Superintendent Alan D. Genovese said Graves was hired in July to fill in for another custodian who was on a short-term leave. Graves got the $12.25-an-hour job after a background check, which included a search of his criminal history. Genovese said the criminal history check did not show Graves's juvenile record.

Genovese said Graves, who was dismissed after the theft was reported, worked a night shift starting at 3 p.m. and that he had little or no contact with children.

The superintendent also said the school will demand restitution. ``Hopefully, we get those pennies back," he said.

Rebecca Ranney, 14, a high school freshman who designed a T-shirt and logo for the project, said pennies were chosen to represent the children who died in the Holocaust because the coin depicts Abraham Lincoln, who ended slavery in the United States and is a symbol of liberty and justice. ``These are things that people who died in the Holocaust never got, so we felt like we could give them that back," she said.

After learning of the theft, Rockwell and the students immediately decided to continue raising money. This past weekend, they had a booth at a town fair in Groton and raised at least $500, they said.

Now, Rockwell and the students working with her are debating what to do with their suddenly enlarged collection. One idea is to install clear plastic tubes for the coins so students can see just how many 1.5 million pennies are. When the money would be spent, and on what, is yet to be determined .

Whatever is eventually done, Payne and other students interviewed yesterday said they do not want to lose sight of the project's central goal: learning about the Holocaust in order to prevent another.

``I never thought we would reach so many people, we would influence and educate so many people," said Payne.

John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com