Principal Shane Foster said several youths broke into the school, causing damage to his office. Photo / Supplied
Principal Shane Foster said several youths broke into the school, causing damage to his office. Photo / Supplied
A Napier principal's office was ransacked during a burglary at a Maraenui school on Monday night.
Richmond Primary School Principal Shane Foster said several youths broke into the school, causing damage to his office.
"One of them came in through my office window, which was smashed, and opened the frontdoor, where two of his mates came inside the office area," he said.
"They tipped up my office, pulled out all the drawers and emptied them. They can be seen leaving with things in their hands – but you can't actually quite pick up what it was."
Foster added: "You think everyone is in isolation like they should be, but some people see that as an opportunity to take advantage like this."
"We put them on the school Facebook page last night and from there it has gone viral, with a lot of support from the community, giving names and so on," he said.
The decile-one school has 140 students.
Foster said this was not the school's first such incident, but hoped new security measures would bring a turnaround.
"We've upgraded our security cameras, which has been fantastic for us. It's timely, knowing that schools are going into isolation, but we know our school will be looked after with a 24-hour monitoring system.
"The police have now names and photos, and took fingerprints, so hopefully they can retrieve the items in the next day or two.
"It'll be one of those ones where I won't know what [has gone] until it's something I want to use or want to have. I won't know until I have a good look."
