Anger after vandals smash up school’s five minibuses

Thugs smashed windows, snapped off aerials and broke wing mirrors on the vehicles at Westcroft School in Essington, near Wolverhampton – resulting in an estimated £4,000 worth of damage.

It’s believed the attack happened over the weekend before the start of term this week.

The school caters for children with complex learning needs and the minibuses were used to transport groups of pupils to events and to take part in special activities.

School officials took to Facebook to say that the vandals had causes 'untold damage' to the vehicles.

Executive headteacher Ann Brown said there is now no way of getting the youngsters out on planned trips.

She said: “We’re totally devastated, these minibuses were a huge part in delivering the curriculum to the children.

“They’re used every day and all day and without them we can’t get the children out and about. Everything is now on hold.

“We can probably repair two of them quite quickly, hopefully by the end of the week, but the other three have significant damage with smashed windows and broken aerials, so they will take much longer.

“The children have suffered because of this and will now miss a number of trips this week, including a trip to Cannock Chase.

“It’s especially difficult for us as the new children are arriving this week and we always plan to have them out and about, socialising and bonding in a group.

“Due to what has happened everyone will have to stay on site and do activities here until we have some of them repaired.

“Although the children will be horrified when they see what has happened, our staff are very resourceful and creative and will do a great job with them on site.

“The people who did this don’t think, care or understand the impact of vandalism like this.

“We’re an open site during the summer with summer schools and a swimming pool open to people outside of the school and we’ve been targeted. The impact on the school and the children is immense.”

A spokesperson for Staffordshire Police said: “We were called on September 3 to a report of five school minibuses having been damaged over the weekend at Westcroft School in Essington.

“The minibuses have had windows broken, aerials damaged and wing mirrors broken.

"While officers investigate, we would call on any member of the public that witnessed the damage, or saw any suspicious behaviour at the school between 3.30pm on Friday August 31 and 7am on Monday September 3 to call 101 immediately quoting incident number 147 of 3 September.

“Alternatively, for guaranteed anonymity, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”