Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 12, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Range Lake North school was broken into early Monday morning, likely with mischief in mind, according to the RCMP and the school's principal, Dean MacInnis.

Dean MacInnis, principal of Range Lake North school, shows a window damaged by vandals early Monday morning. - Cara Loverock/NNSL photo

"They pried open the back door, and smashed a window leading to the office. It seems as though they broke in to do just that. Nothing is missing, we walked around the building," MacInnis said Monday afternoon.

RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich said that police responded to an alarm at the school at about 2:30 a.m. Monday morning, but by the time they arrived, the culprits had already left the scene.

An RCMP release stated that there were currently no suspects, and that they were unable to locate any witnesses in the area.

"The school is kind of secluded, and it doesn't help," MacInnis said.

"I suppose we could invest in some more lighting, but it's not like we are out there like, say, Mildred Hall (school)."

The police statement said that the RCMP are looking for the public's assistance in the case, and urged anyone with information to contact them.

MacInnis said that he would like to think someone would have some information about the break-in, but doesn't think that will happen.

"I'm not holding my breath," he said.

"It would be good if someone saw something...(if someone were caught) it would send a message - don't do that at our school."

Range Lake North had only been in session for one week before the incident, and this is MacInnis' first year at the school.

He said he has lived in Yellowknife for 15 years, and was previously the principal at William McDonald school. He wasn't happy with this start to the year.

"It's disappointing. I have only been in the school for a month, and this is just disappointing," said MacInnis.

He said that the school, which operates pre-school to Grade 8, didn't make a big deal out of the damage to the students.

He said that he spoke with all the staff when they came in, and that the incident would be explained only to students who queried, to keep things business-as-normal at the school.

"Unless we believed it to be students of our school," he said, but added that they had no reason to believe that at this time.