El Dorado County School Playground Repeatedly Vandalized
RESCUE (CBS13) - An El Dorado County elementary school was hit by vandalism for the third time in a week on Friday.
School officials found swear words and inappropriate images carved into the playground slide, but the problems at Green Valley Elementary School in Rescue are much more serious.
Vandalism has been going on for months there, and it's not just people sketching bad words into slides. Someone burnt a hole in a section of the slide sometime in July.
"It's disheartening," a school mom said. "The kids love the playground."
But sadly for kids, the playground is no longer safe, and some brash vandals are to blame.
"It does make us very sad that it takes this equipment out of use by the kids who really need a safe place to play," Superintendent David Swart said.
Swear words and inappropriate pictures have been carved into the equipment. The canvas roof was cut and torn down, and a giant hole burned into the slide.
"I was shocked that we would be dealing with this kind of vandalism at an elementary school," said Ron Thompson, director of facilities.
The school superintendent says the total cost to replace the playground is more than $10,000.
"Education is really suffering right now, so when we get these types of costs it really is a hardship on the school," Swart said.
Several police reports have been filed, but it seems the school district's internal investigation is on to something.
"Students sometimes talk and we've heard there has been a student that's been talking about doing this, so we do have a couple leads and we're following them seriously," Swart said.
For now, the dirty words have been scratched out, there is caution tape around the slide and there are a whole lot of kids without a school playground.
"Hopefully, they'll get it fixed soon," a parent said.
School district officials continue to think of ideas to stop the vandalism, but they think they're going to finally have to install security cameras.
