A rural primary school in Co Tyrone has been targeted by vandals after graffiti was sprayed on the side of its building.
St Eugene’s Primary School in Victoria Bridge was the subject of the vandalism at the weekend, after recent efforts by staff and pupils to tidy up the school last week.
School principal Laura Gormley said it was ‘disappointing’ for staff and pupils to arrive in on Monday morning to see the graffiti.
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“We have seen vandalism here in the past, thankfully it hasn’t been too frequent of an occurrence but we’ve never had graffiti done before,” Laura told MyTyrone.
“We arrived in this morning and we were just all very disappointed to see the whole side of our mobile building had been defaced over the weekend.
“The children were annoyed as well obviously, coming in after the weekend and we had just been working on a pollinator grant we had received and had spent all of last week outside doing up all of our grounds.
“We left on Friday evening and the school was looking the best it had ever looked before.
“So just to come in this morning to see that was really very disappointing.”
The PSNI confirmed they are investigating a report of criminal damage at the school on Fyfin Road in the Co Tyrone village.
Laura added: “We’re very fortunate here in that we live in a local village where the residents are so supportive of the school community and they are usually very vigilant.
“But obviously somebody has come in the dark of night where they can’t be seen down round the back of the school and got away with it.
“We would like to think it wasn’t anybody who has availed of the services in the school.”
Sinn Féin MLA Maolíosa McHugh said the targeting of the school was ‘disgraceful’.
“Disgraceful behaviour vandalising one of our local schools,” the West Tyrone MLA said.
“The staff and pupils of St Eugene's PS, Victoria Bridge work so hard to provide a warm and welcoming environment.
“Those responsible need to wise-up and desist immediately.”
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