VISITS and activities have been cancelled for devastated pupils at two city schools after a vandal attack caused £10,000 damage to three minibuses.
Windows were smashed and the steering columns torn out of the vehicles which belong to St Martins School and Noel-Baker Community School, which share a campus in Bracknell Drive, Alvaston.
Gary Dodd, head teacher at St Martins, said the whole community has been left distraught by the "mindless violence" which was carried out during the early hours of last Sunday.
He said: "CCTV footage has captured three youths after they had rampaged across the site and we are hoping the police will be able to identify them.
"The minibuses are used by the schools for educational visits and sports events but have been rendered inoperable and in need of very expensive repairs.
"My students were visibly upset when they saw the damage, particularly because special visits they had planned and were looking forward to were this week, as well as their after-school and holiday club activities, have all had to be cancelled. Some of them had been due to go on a forest school trip the next day but this had to be cancelled,
"The school has worked so hard to raise funds to buy these minibuses, so to see this mindless vandalism affect the special visits staff have planned is really distressing for our students.
"We do have some students who use wheelchairs and rely on these buses, so this is devastating for them. Money we will now have to spend on the repairs will have to come from somewhere in our school budget – again affecting our students."
The three youths were seen on CCTV at 2.45am on the campus, which has only been in use since the schools were rebuilt last September.
In addition to smashing up the three mini-buses, the youths started up stone rollers and heavy JCB plant machinery to smash into security fencing to try and gain access to the site.
They also smashed several large window panes around the site trying to gain access to the building.
Mal Kerr, head teacher at Noel-Baker school, said: "Our entire school community is disgusted with what has happened.
"From what we understand there was a trail of damage from the new building site on Jubilee Road, and then across into the campus.
"This is mindless and wanton vandalism. The impact on our students is massive because we use the minibuses regularly for trips, visits and matches. It will also require a considerable diversion of funds away from our school community to repair this outrage."
A Derbyshire Police spokeswoman confirmed that officers were investigating the incident and said: "Our scenes of crime staff are hoping that forensic evidence left at the scene could help discover the culprits. But we are also hoping someone may have seen something."
Anyone with information should contact the police on 101 of Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
