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Vandals Wreck Carmichael Special-Needs School, Defecate In Pool

CARMICHAEL (CBS13) – Vandals trashed a special-needs school while students were on a weeklong break.

It happened at Laurel Ruff Transitional School in the San Juan Unified School District.

"Any school shouldn't have to deal with the tragedy like this," said the principal Julia Arreguin,

The school is a safe zone for more than 100 special needs students, helping them transition from high school into the real world.

But last week their trust was shattered, much like what the vandals did to their campus.

"It looked like they had gone after it with a sledgehammer," she said. "I just don't understand why somebody would come onto this campus and do this to a school to students with disabilities."

Arreguin has been the principal for the last 20 years, teaching these young adults to succeed. She says this is devastating.

"Everything in the room was thrown in the pool," she said. "The water was left on. There was like 2 inches of water flooding the area. They had defecated in the pool, which is disgusting.

The pool was shut down and students were forced out of their routines, causing them even further damage.

"It's very important that we have everything here for them when it's available, so it's a sad thing that the damage happened and now they are kind of being held back from that goal," said Jefferson Crist, a teacher at Laurel Ruff.

The suspects also destroyed a closet full of donated clothes to help dress the students for interviews and work.

"Sprayed the fire extinguisher over everything so when you went in there it was just a cloud of horrible chemicals," Arreguin said.

The students were able to salvage many of those items, even hauled them off to the laundromat themselves.

Arreguin wants the suspects to know the damage they've caused.

"My staff is really upset because we have a team that works really hard to get the students ready for the world, so when something like this happens that is just so ugly, sometimes people take it personally," she said.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is investigating the case. If you have any information, please come forward.

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