The Associated Press
8/29/2003, 12:40 p.m. CT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- An elementary school principal frustrated with the aging condition of 49 windows at her school smashed them herself in hopes of getting replacements.

Dianne Gilbert got her wish, but she will end up paying $830.12 of her own money for the repairs at Caldwell Elementary School.

"They needed to be replaced," Gilbert said. "There's not another school in Nashville where the windows are cracked, filled with silicone, taped over and covered with pockmarked green-and-yellow Plexiglas.

"I had had enough with the state of repairs."

Gilbert, who has been principal at Caldwell for eight years, immediately e-mailed the maintenance department to tell them what she had done, voice her frustration and offer to pay for the damage.

The school had been undergoing a summer-long renovation when Gilbert broke out the windows, which weren't expected to be replaced as part of the project.

Nashville Schools Director Pedro Garcia said no legal action was taken against Gilbert and no record of the incident was listed in her personnel file. The only punishment Gilbert received was paying for the damages and a verbal reprimand.

"I think what happened was we were replacing windows because it was part of finishing that building, and those windows were dirty and ugly," Garcia said. "For whatever reason, she did not think they were going to be replaced, so she took it upon herself to break them."

If a student had broken the windows, the child could have faced criminal vandalism charges as well as suspension or expulsion.