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Community shocked after vandals wreck classrooms at Santa Rosa school

Vandals wreck two classrooms at Wright Charter School in west Santa Rosa
Vandals wreck two classrooms at Wright Charter School in west Santa Rosa 02:21

A North Bay School came back from winter break and made a horrible discovery.

Vandals destroyed every inch of two classrooms at Wright Charter School in west Santa Rosa.

The superintendent said the incident happened a week ago. Custodians left for the night and when they returned the next morning, they were stunned at the damage left behind.

It was an act of vandalism that shocked the school community. Every single piece of furniture was tossed. School supplies were scattered. Nothing was left untouched.

Lisa Saxon, the Superintendent of Wright Elementary School District said, "It was devastating and in person was even worse than the photos I sent you. I have not seen anything quite like that before. It was complete destruction."

Wright Charter is a TK-8th school with students coming from all over Santa Rosa.

Saxon said, "It was extremely violating to the school, community itself, the staff, the students, the families."

The vandals broke the windows of two 7th and 8th grade classrooms. One that was used to teach English and the other science. Teachers from the entire district have come together to help set up a temporary classroom for the students and to try to clean up as much of this mess as they can.

Saxon added, "We're needing to replace the floor. It was not able to be cleaned given all the paint that was strewn everywhere. There was a Chrome cart overturned. The teacher's laptop was destroyed. An Apple TV was destroyed."

The district is working with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department to hopefully catch those responsible. 

Superintendent Saxon said at this point, there's no evidence to indicate current or former students are responsible for this crime. 

She said, "It is my hope that if we are able to identify who is responsible for this act, clearly it's someone or persons who are angry and beneath that anger is hurt. Someone is hurting and I am hopeful that we can get them the help that they clearly need."

The district estimates the cost to repair the damage and replace the materials will cost more than $40,000. It's hoping most of the cost will be covered by insurance.

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