Police are appealing for help in trying to track down the vandals who broke into Byron Bay High School at the weekend and smashed art works of students preparing for their Higher School Certificate (HSC).
The vandals damaged four pieces of work just days before they were due to be handed in for assessment.
Police found a number of rooms were damaged by paint and other liquids which had been thrown around. Specialist forensic officers attended and conducted an examination of the area.
Education authorities have described it as heartbreaking for the students, but urged them not to let it distract them as they still had other subjects to prepare for and all their work to date would be considered.
Paul Hewitt, from the Board of Studies, told ABC North Coast that if the students ‘can just trust us to work with the school in making sure that their HSC visual arts mark is covered, just make sure that they spend a lot of time preparing for those other subjects’.
‘We do know a fair bit about the students’ performance, or at least we will,’Mr Hewitt said.
Police described the vandalism as an ‘extremely serious’ and ‘stupid’ offence.
Police are urging anyone with information about this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page: www1.police.nsw.gov.
