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Mary Paterson caretaker Sandra Di Lauro inspects the break-in damage |
Vandals hit school’s play area
‘Heartbreak’ as break-in causes serious damage and precious child’s car is stolen
STAFF at a nursery school are pleading with vandals who trashed their children’s play area to give back a toy car that was donated by the parents of a boy who died last year.
The Brum car, which has real leather seats and costs around £500, was taken when youths scaled the walls of Mary Paterson Nursery School in Riverton Close, Maida Hill, on Friday night and broke into the shed where all the toys were locked away.
Neighbours reported seeing up to 100 youths in the school garden the following day, some of whom were seen tearing up and down the neighbouring roads on the children’s tricycles.
The garden was ransacked, with the door snapped off a cubby house, fertiliser and charcoal thrown into the pond and broken toys strewn around the roads outside the school. All the fish in the pond died from poisoning and the cubby house is now out of action.
School caretaker Sandra Di Lauro said the children were “devastated”.
“The children are so upset,” she said. “They had grown very attatched to the fish and had given them all names.
“We had to break the news to them on Monday. I just can’t believe anyone would do such a thing – it’s absolutely heartless. The playground won’t be the same.”
The damage is estimated to have cost the school close to £2,000, with a number of other items including car booster seats and bicycles also stolen. The police are yet to catch the vandals.
Mrs Di Lauro said: “We only just got the car and all the kids love it because they watch the television show.
“It’s really sad for the parents because it was a gift to the school in memory of their son. If we can just get that back.
“It can’t have got very far and someone must know where it is – it really stands out.”
Around 60 children between the ages of three and five go to the school, which has had so much trouble with break-ins and anti-social behaviour, it has added anti-clamber railings to its walls.
Mrs Di Lauro added: “This is not the first time we’ve had people break in. Even with all the locks and electric gates they find ways of getting in. We also get all sorts of stuff thrown over the walls – even a can of CS gas.”
Headteacher Sylivie Gambell was unavailable for comment. |
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