Vandalism shuts down school for a day

By Nadine Armstrong

The Hants Journal/NovaNewsNow.com

A small group of teachers stood outside Avon View High School Tuesday morning, Nov. 6, telling students arriving by car to turn around and go home. And bus drivers were asked not to pick students up during the morning route after an emergency school closure was announced.

Classes at the school were cancelled that morning and RCMP contacted when it was discovered that more than dozen windows had been smashed out sometime overnight.

Grade 12 students Steven Upshaw and Brady Wilson arrived together that morning and were disappointed to learn of the closure. “I'm a bit upset because I drove all the way out here and wasted gas,” said Upshaw Wilson called the vandalism, 'stupid and pointless'. “We finally get a nice school and the some people try and make it a dump,” he said.

Annapolis Valley Regional School Board superintendent Dr. Norman Dray said he wasn't having any fun that morning attempting to ensure students were informed of the closure. He said they were lucky that classes at the high school start later in the morning and that the damage was discovered before students began to arrive.

Classes were cancelled first and foremost, he said, in order to give police the chance to do an investigation unencumbered. “That was our first concern. We can't have a school full of students getting in the way of police procedures.”

Dray said student safety was also a factor in the closure. “At this point we don't know the full extent of the damage and there is broken glass lying around and also there is an issue of heat with broken windows.

Dray said that emergency closure procedures are the same for all schools in the AVRSB and doesn't differentiate between elementary or high schools. “We just want to make sure a school is in best operational conditions.”

Avon View High School is a relatively new school, having opened its doors to more than 900 students in September 2004.

“We find it very shocking,” Dray said. “This school is an important part of this community and I don't think students will be happy to have their place of learning damaged. This is disappointing for the whole community.”

The RCMP had already opened an investigation into vandalism at the school when two windows were smashed Halloween night. Police say rocks were used to cause the damage and four young men were arrested later that day.

Classes were resumed the following day.