Math teacher Laressa Ridge didn’t expect to start her morning on vacation with a call from school.
“You may want to come down here,” said the school official.
Ridge drove up to the school to see four windows of her math classroom shattered, with pieces of glass inside the classroom and in the lawn outside. Officials noticed the vandalism on the morning of April 14. The vandalism is thought to have occurred the night before.
“I was pretty surprised when I saw the vandalism,” said Ridge. “There was nothing stolen, so it seemed like a prank. Only four windows were broken. It was pretty random.”
Saratoga High was one of multiple high schools vandalized, including Pioneer and Leland High.
“This sort of thing really doesn’t occur often,” said assistant principal Kevin Mount. “Usually there are a couple spray paint pranks, but nothing to this level.”
According to Mount, as of now there are no suspects as to who vandalized the school.
The windows have been covered up by boards and classes are continuing as normal.
“When I walked into the classroom Monday morning, I was like ‘what is going on?’” said senior Erin Wong, who takes child psychology with Ridge. “I have seen our school get toilet-papered and even egged but never something like this.”
Wong and several other students were confused as to why their school was vandalised.
“If there was any motivation, I really don’t know what it could have been,” said Wong. “They didn’t really achieve anything; so they essentially wasted their time.”
What a pane.