WBSD bus vandals prompt closure of schools April 18

For the second time in 2.5 months, the West Bloomfield School District was forced to cancel school after a number of its school buses were disabled and vandalized the night before at the district’s bus garage lot in Orchard Lake.

The district canceled classes for today, Wednesday, April 18 after it was discovered around 5:30 a.m. today that 20 of its buses had fuses pulled from their engines and had some wires cut.

All district elementary and middle school extracurricular activities were also canceled, but all West Bloomfield High School extracurricular activities were expected to proceed as scheduled.

West Bloomfield Schools Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator Pamela Zajac said the vandalism took place when suspects entered the yard at 10:24 p.m. and left at 10:40 p.m. yesterday, Tuesday, April 17.

“We have video surveillance and we saw three people on film. We are working with Orchard Lake Police Chief Joe George and Detective Darrell Betts,” Zajac said. “We are also enhancing our surveillance system at the bus lot, but it hasn’t been installed yet. Everything is on order and it should come in any day.”

Zajac added that the district’s schools are expected to reopen tomorrow, Thursday, April 19 for classes and that someone from Advance Security will be on-site as of today to guard the lot.

George said the incident is under investigation.

This is the second incident of school bus vandalism in the district’s bus lot this year, with the first coming back on Jan. 29 when 18 buses were vandalized.

Between 9:30 and 10:05 p.m. that night, suspects let the air out of the tires on three buses, while the remaining buses were vandalized by the perpetrators pulling fuses out of fuse boxes or ripping out various cords. The vandals also unplugged heating elements from batteries.

The district was forced to cancel classes on Jan. 30.

Zajac said that no suspects have yet been apprehended in that incident.