CCTV bid for isolated primary school daubed in offensive graffiti
Rollesby Primary headteacher Louise Hinton outside her school that had to close for a day due to vandals.Picture: Nick Butcher - Credit: Nick Butcher
A vandal attack has triggered a £5,000 crowdfunding appeal for CCTV cameras at an isolated Norfolk primary school.
Teachers and staff arriving at Rollesby Primary and Nursery earlier this month were confronted with lewd drawings covering almost the whole school frontage and playground.
So offensive were the words and images police said the school had to close and specialist cleaning services were brought in to remove them.
Now, bouyed by an outpouring of community and parent support, headteacher Louise Hinton is looking to install cameras inside and outside the premises as both a deterrent and a means of catching the culprits and providing evidence if the same were to happen again.
Mrs Hinton said the scale and content of the abusive daubings had come as a massive shock, but that the rallying response of everyone who was involved with the school and the wider community had been “overwhelming.”
MORE: Staff clean up vandalism at Norfolk primary school that left building covered with rude words and imagesParents, she said, were keen to help obtain quotes for the system and the first major fundraising push - a Christmas craft fayre at the school - was being staged on December 9, 10-3pm.
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She said: “The response from the community has been overwhelming. We have had so many offers of help and support.
“Emma Sneddon is organising a craft fair and other parents have said they will help contacting CCTV companies.
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“We have had Facebook messages from people saying how sorry they are.
“It has been really humbling. I feel that something positive has come out of it.
“We know the goodwill is out there but when something like this happens it really comes to the forefront.”
Mrs Hinton added that a risk assessment carried out about three years ago revealed there had been activity on the school field after hours but nothing that warranted spending thousands of a small school’s budget for the sake of a bit of litter.
“Now this has happened we need something else,” she said.
“We are very isolated, there is nothing around us, in that respect we are vulnerable.
“CCTV will be a deterrent and if it happens again we will be able to catch them more easily and have the evidence.”
A 16 and 17 year old arrested remain under investigation.
