Staff, parents and students at a Nova Scotia school are frustrated after vandals tore up a newly-repaired playground, leaving it unusable.
The vandals drove a vehicle into the playground behind Lower Sackville’s Hillside Park Elementary School and tore up the sod doing ‘donuts.’
“It’s not a nice thing, and a lot of people in classes play soccer on the field, and now it’s all ruined,’ says student Ryan Simms.
“I think it's very disrespectful because that's where most of the children run and play and have fun," echoes Samantha Simms.
The mess was discovered last week, leaving parents frustrated. They worked hard raising money to make the often water-saturated field usable for the students.
"We spent almost $1,000 last summer getting a French drain put in, getting it all drained properly, so that the kids could use it," laments parent Nina Borrios.
Now they have to start over, with no guarantee it won’t happen again.
It's very easy for a vehicle to come up the school’s driveway in the dark and drive all the way back into the field.
The school board is considering installing gates to keep vehicles out after hours, but staff say the children are still worried about what happens now.
"They know that it's going to have to be fixed in order for them to play, and one of the students is already wondering how they're going to have their fun day in the spring when they come out and use the field for that," says Principal Karla Wolfe.
Police are investigating the incident but they have little evidence as there are no nighttime security cameras.
Parents and staff are still trying to figure out how they will make the playground safe for children again.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw
