The community surrounding Evergreen Elementary in Saint-Lazare, west of Montreal, is devastated after their new playground was vandalized.
Principal Peggy Grant said she still can’t understand why someone would do it.
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“I was kind of saddened on Monday when one of my little girls in Grade 1 brought me part of the play structure,” Grant said.
The $6,000 play area was installed last summer. Vandals cut down the zip line rope and damaged the rope climbing wall. The school says repairs will cost around $1,000.
“It breaks my heart that now we have to fix this,” the principal told Global News.
She said what really hurts the school community is that the playground was only made possible by extensive fundraising efforts that took years of work by parents and students.
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“When you’re a public school, you only have so much money. Fundraising is a big part of what brings extra to the students, so it’s quite disappointing to think that this happened,” said Grant.
The school board and Saint-Lazare paid part of the $6,000, but Grant said most of the money came from fundraisers.
“They sold chocolates, we have an avalanche ski sale every year. They do hot dog lunches, pizza lunches,” she said.
“It was sad that we did all this hard work and someone would feel the need to destroy it,” said Tracy Reardon, a parent who helped raise the money.
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On Wednesday morning, police surveyed the damage and took a report from the principal.
Quebec provincial police told Global News it plans to step up patrols in the area.