Thousands raised after thieves target mini bus at North Yorkshire special school
The vehicle will have to be written off
Thousands of pounds has been raised for a special school in York after thieves targeted their mini bus, forcing it to be written off.
Criminals drilled into the fuel tank of the vehicle which was used to take pupils out on activities.
Adam Booker is the headteacher at Applefields School and explains what happened:
"We discovered there was a load of diesel all over the car park underneath one of the buses and we thought, oh, you know, there has been a spillage or something like that. Got the AA out, they came and said actually the petrol tank's been drilled and someone's syphoned off the diesel and it looks like that the bus will have to be written off.
"We use it daily. We've got pupils going all over the city. York education people know that we're here, there and everywhere. We're doing transitions, we're preparing them for adult life. We get them down to the shop so they can spend their own money. We've got pupils going out on regulation visits into town, just trying to experience all of those things. For some of our kids, it's about just getting out there and broadening their horizons and the activities that they do.
"You know you're kind of thinking well, why would someone do that? I mean, I know that life is hard for a lot of people, but you know, it's school and these people have got kids surely?
"We're not angry, we're not anything like that. We're just just upset that now all of a sudden we're having to resort to taxis and looking at different ways of getting the kids out and about because what we don't want to do is for this to to stop us doing what we're doing. We carry on. We're resilient. We've got to be resilient because our kids are resilient and we're doing it for them."
You can see more about the fundraiser here