Kindergarten classroom vandalized

A kindergarten classroom at Roche Elementary School was discovered earlier this week to be broken into by vandals, who tossed its contents and damaged many books and supplies beyond repair.

A social media post Tuesday by Steve Scott, fiance of kindergarten teacher Sarah Boulton, said they “lost everything.”

Schoolbooks collected over the years were destroyed and will be difficult to replace, but the post added they have already received significant donations from the community to replace damaged items.

A photo of the classroom in the post shows the floor covered with textbooks, tables and chairs overturned, garbage cans knocked over and paint smeared all over.

“Everything was trashed,” said Jason Pommier, public information officer for Porterville Unified School District. “They did a pretty good number on it.”

Officials from Porterville Unified School District said Porterville Police Department is currently investigating the incident, but little information is known at this time.

Roche is not one of the sites being used by PUSD for summer school this year, so few staff members have been around the campus since school ended in June.

As a result, PUSD does not yet have any specific information on when exactly the incident happened, and are not sure at this point if video footage from security cameras will reveal anything useful in the investigation.

School resumes Aug. 9 for PUSD, and Pommier said he feels confident the district will have enough time to clean up the room and assess the damage for insurance purposes.