Children, staff, and families at a local pre-school have been devastated by the theft and destruction of their school bus.
The Lac La Biche Aboriginal Head Start bus was stolen early last Tuesday, and was found by RCMP completely destroyed by fire the next day in the Goodfish Lake area. Head Start supervisor Tilda Hayward said losing the bus means cancelling year-end fieldtrips—and some young children won’t be able to attend the program because their families rely on the bus for transportation.
“The poor kids—a lot of them are so sad,” Hayward said. “How do you explain to them that someone could do this?”
For the 40 children enrolled in Head Start, aged three to five, losing the bus means they missed out on a field trip to a farm scheduled for last Thursday. Local parent Candace Ralene Janvier said her four-year-old daughter loved taking the bus.
“The best part of Alleigh’s day was catching the bus,” Janvier said. “She loved that the bus came right to our door and she walked over so independently. For a four year old, that’s huge.”
And the loss couldn’t have come at a worse time.
“These are the last few weeks when they have all the big field trips—and the children look forward to it,” Janvier said. “Without transportation, they can’t have that. My message to this person is: How could you be so heartless? Stealing from children … you have now taken away something that means so much to them, yet so little to you.”
Hayward said replacing the bus would cost Head Start around $70,000—money they just don’t have. The supervisor said they are going to look at renting another bus and fundraising to buy a new set of wheels for the young students.
“This is affecting a lot of kids and families,” Hayward said.
RCMP are currently investigating the incident, and are asking anyone with information to call the Lac La Biche detachment at 780-623-4380 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
