Trinity bus, field hit by vandalism

Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 17, 2008

NATCHEZ — Typical end of the school year teenage hijinks went a step too far Thursday night at Trinity Episcopal Day School.

School personnel discovered Friday morning that someone had vandalized the football field and brand new school bus.

Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said cars caused the damage to the football field.

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“One or two vehicles went on the football field and spun their tires and did a lot of damage to the football field,” Mullins said.

Delecia Carey, head of the school, said the bus has been dented on the side and some of the mural that runs along the bottom portion of the bus has been scratched.

She said the dent appears to be from another car running into the side of it.

Carey said she has faith in the Natchez Police Department to find out who the wrongdoers are.

“I’m confident they’ll take care of it,” she said. “I’m sure it’s teenagers that just made a bad decision.

“I feel bad for the kids who were involved because I know it was just something that seemed funny at the time and actually is really quite serious.”

Though fixing the damage is not anything Carey is worried about, she said she and the Trinity students are still upset.

“They’re sad,” she said of the students. “They’re very proud of their school and they feel bad.”

She’s told the students that no permanent damage has been done to either the bus or the field.

The school bus was purchased less than two months ago, and is reportedly the safest bus in Mississippi because of seat belts. It also has a mural along the outside that depicts photos from school events.

The mural was designed by J & M Digital Corporation and Carey said the design has been saved and it can be fixed.

“It’ll be difficult but not impossible,” Carey said. “J&M saved everything so if there was damage by an accident or vandalism it would be possible to repair.”

Mullins said the police department will soon have an estimate on how much damage truly was done in financial terms.

“We have not determined repair cost at this time,” he said.

He said the matter is being investigated and if the damage is over $500, the charges against those responsible will be felony malicious mischief.