Tucson Country Day Charter School staff is working with authorities in the search for those responsible for vandalism that has cost the school thousands of dollars in damage.
A fire was reported at the school Saturday evening, Principal Jordan Krause said Monday. When emergency authorities and school personnel arrived at the school, 9239 E. Wrightstown Road, they found a fleet of school vans on fire, graffiti on school buildings, and other broken property, including water fountains and a refrigerator.
“We are in the process of sharing with (Tucson Police Department) some surveillance footage that we were able to capture on our campus, but at this point, no suspects,” Krause said.
He said four out of five of the school vans were destroyed in the fire. Given that the vans were old models with a lot of mileage, administrators did not expect to receive much from insurance coverage.
The loss of the vans means students cannot be taken on field trips or to school sporting events, said Tim Hall, the school’s athletic director. The school was planning to rent a couple of vans this week so that students could still participate in sporting events this week, he said.
“That is the way that we transport kids right now, so having four of those five vans gone, especially those 12- to 14-passenger vans, those aren’t cheap to replace,” Hall said.
On Sunday afternoon, the school took to its Facebook page to ask the community for help in raising money to replace the vans. The post included a link to a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $60,000 to buy new vehicles.
As of Monday afternoon, the community had donated just under $6,000.
“What’s awesome is seeing a whole bunch of former students, parents of former students making donations and really reaching out,” Hall said, adding that the school staff also showed up to help cover up the graffiti early Monday morning. “It’s been really good to see that there’s a lot more positive out there than negative.”
Krause asked the community to continue lending support by checking in with students.
“I think if, collectively, our community can really stay in tune with our kids’ and teenagers’ needs, these kinds of things can hopefully be prevented,” Krause said.
