Heartbreak over school vandalism
A north Waikato school has been the target of vandalism, graffiti and theft just a couple of weeks out from the beginning of term one.
Outside Pukemiro School in Huntly a water fountain has been kicked off the wall, panels have been kicked in, door handles ripped off and fibre around the bottom of the building has been pulled and played with.
Inside the school a television, money, robotics, a camera and a mobile phone have been stolen and a freezer, previously full of meat, emptied.
Principal Wendy SheridanSmith received the news on Monday morning from a staff member, who had gone down to the school to get her classroom ready for the year.
Sheridan-Smith’s heart sank when she walked up to the school’s entrance.
‘‘All of the doors have to be repaired and painted and there’s very large and prominent graffiti tagging all around the main building,’’ Sheridan-Smith said.
‘‘They’ve emptied half the sandpit and dumped it all around the school. It’s all for purely nuisance value, but at the end day it all has to be fixed.’’
All technology equipment has been removed from the school. It’s not a problem, but it shouldn’t have to happen, Sheridan-Smith said.
‘‘We’ve worked really hard to change the inside and outside environment and to have all of this done, it’s disheartening for the kids.
‘‘Although schools are seen as public property, they belong to the students.’’
Sheridan-Smith was worried about how it would impact the children.
‘‘We had a lovely end of year, celebrated lots of learning and now we have to clean up this mess and have to explain to the kids what’s happened.
‘‘It will affect them. There’s no two ways about it.’’
Police arrested a 15-year-old male who was charged with three burglaries in the Pukemiro area over the weekend, Western Waikato police area commander Inspector Andrew Mortimore said.
He was arrested on Monday after an officer at Pukemiro, making inquiries into the school burglary, received a call from the police northern communications centre.
A resident, who was out at the time, phoned police to report a break-in at a property on Rotowaro Rd where a cellphone had been taken, Mortimore said.
‘‘He was tracking a cellphone that had been taken.’’
The alleged thief’s whereabouts were relayed to the officer at the scene who managed to track down the teenager and arrest him not far from the scene.
‘‘He became agitated upon arrest and caused damage to the police vehicle.’’
He has since been bailed to reappear in Huntly Youth Court. Sheridan-Smith is unsure whether the vandalism and burglary were done at the same time.
‘‘The school’s been lucky in the past, we’ve just been unlucky these holidays and it’s heartbreaking.’’
She isn’t sure how long it is going to take to fix the damage, or how much it will cost.
‘‘It’s going to be a matter of juggling around what we do and what we don’t. I’m trying to be positive about all of this, but we will have to look at the budget and make decisions from there.’’
School is due to start on Tuesday, January 31, and Sheridan-Smith is adamant it won’t be delayed.
‘‘It’s a lot of work to set up a school at the start of the year and now, before we can do anything, we have to sort this out. I’ve got amazing staff and we will sort it out.
‘‘We were all going to come in next week anyway. Now, we will have to do a bit of a working bee, but I will have to talk to the board about how they want to do it.’’