Ryan Nichols, vice principal at Mildred Hall, says he's “disappointed” and “frustrated” after four individuals broke into the school over the weekend and attempted to steal musical instruments before vandalizing the school bus.
“It's sad for the kids,” he said. “There were a bunch of field trips that were planned this week that we have to find alternate transportation for.”
Nichols said security cameras captured four “older teens” breaking into the school late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. The individuals entered the school by smashing the music room window, he said.
“It's taken a while to clean up the little shards of glass and everything like that,” said Nichols.
The individuals attempted to steal three guitars, which were later found just outside the building, he said.
On Monday, staff discovered that the school bus had also been vandalized, many of its windows had been smashed, he said.
Nichols said it will take three to four weeks to fix the damaged bus. He could not say how much the repairs would cost.
“It's money we weren't expecting to spend and its unfortunate that we have to,” he said.
Security footage of the incident has been passed along to the police, said Nichols.
“We're going to wait and see what the RCMP come up with,” he said.
As to the identity of the alleged perpetrators, Nichols said the security footage does not reveal, “What their faces look like or anything like that.”
There have been a number of break-ins at the school in recent years, which was why security cameras were installed in the first place, he said.