JOY turned to horror at a school for disabled children when staff discovered that vandals had slashed the brake cables on their children’s minibus.
Staff and children at Oakview School in Loughton were about to start a day of celebration to mark the opening of their new hydrotherapy pool at the end of a triumphant £100,000 fund-raising campaign.
But as the school’s facilities manager made an early-morning inspection of the site he discovered the severed brake cables lying on the ground underneath the van before breaking the news to his horrified colleagues.
Deputy head-teacher Dianne Ryan said: “This is a clear attempt to hurt people. I cannot believe that anyone would even contemplate doing this to anyone, let alone to a child with special needs.
“The potential effects of this do not bear thinking of. What if a group of children had set off with the cables severed?”
Police are investigating the sabotage which is the second on minibus brake cables at the school in just three years.
The van had been parked in the school grounds but the attack was not recorded by the school’s CCTV security cameras and parents and teachers were at a loss to explain who may be responsible.
Head-teacher Sandra Winter said that the school in Whitehills Road had three minibuses in almost constant use, taking pupils on educational visits and days out.
“It’s sickening,” she said.
“To interfere with the breaking system is just appalling. Given that these buses transport children with special needs this is a particularly despicable act of vandalism."
News of the attack soon spread among the parents, politicians and VIPs who had gathered for the official opening.
Vanessa Moore, 47, of Westview Drive in Woodford Green, whose seven year old daughter attends the school, said: "It is almost a hate crime. They have targeted a very vulnerable group.
"The money that is spent on repairs is money that could be spent on helping the pupils, it has been taken from them."
Mrs Ryan said: “There were so many people there who had tried to help us, but at the back of your mind was the fact someone had tried to harm us.”
Mrs Winter said that police had promised to increase patrols in the area to try to prevent further incidents.
