Vandalism Shuts Down School

Someone caused thousands of dollars worth of damage at tiny Cave Springs School in rural Adair County. The News On 6's Chris Wright reports Cave Springs will remained closed for the rest of the week. School officials said they shut down because of maintenance issues, but authorities now say that the problem is much worse than that.

For Jessica Chaffin, whose three children attend Cave Springs, one of the best parts of living in southern Adair County is this school.

"The teachers really have one-on-one time with the kids, they really help these kids out," said Parent Jessica Chaffin.

So, Chaffin says she was shocked to learn from a school employee Cave Springs was vandalized on Sunday night.

"They broke in, spray painted the gym floor, set off fire extinguishers, busted up windows, busted up the computer lab from what I heard," said Chaffin.

When The News On 6 talked to the school on Monday, they downplayed the incident, saying a vandal had broken in and fired off a fire extinguisher inside. But, an entire disaster solutions crew was at the school on Tuesday working on the cleanup. The Adair County Sheriff's Department believes it may cost as much as $50,000 to clean up the mess.

No arrests have been made. School officials have remained silent on the vandalism. In fact, during our interview, school officials sent a security guard to try to kick our News On 6 crew off of public property.

Regardless of the school's handling of the situation, Chaffin says the vandalism is unfortunate and unprecedented.

"Nothing's ever happened like this before. So, this is really major for this school," said Chaffin.

The Adair County Sheriff's Department says this was an act of pure vandalism because nothing was stolen. The security guard told us Cave Springs administrators are not talking because they don't want to give the vandals the attention they believe they are after.