South Colonie Closes after District Buses were Vandalized

It was like a snow day in June, except the white stuff was chemical residue.

The South Colonie Central School District cancelled classes on Friday after vandals discharged fire extinguishers inside 38 school busses, police said. The unidentified assailants had scaled the fence at the school bus yard and entered each bus through the unlocked rear emergency exit.

"It's going to be a very expensive bill, and it's a very serious offense," superintendent Michael Marcelle said. "Police will be doing a very thorough investigation, and our goal is to try get to the bottom of this. 

Though some students told CBS 6 the vandalism may have been a senior prank, Marcelle said the suspects will face criminal charges, regardless of the motive. 

"It's not funny," said parent Ellen Fitzgerald. "This is worse, far worse than any senior prank that we ever did."

 Fitzgerald echoed the sadness of many students, whose year-end celebrations were nixed along with classes.

 "There's a water balloon toss that I wanted to do," Casey Tarbay said, "and I can't do it because it got cancelled."

"I think it was stupid and inconsiderate," Diana Hart said. "I'm really mad because me and my friend made a whole bunch of stuff for an end-of-year party for our class, and we even got people from our class to give us money to go buy it, and now it's all gone to waste because the food's not going to last until Monday."

While many students lamented the cancellation of planned year-end festivities, the high school senior class officers created their own silver lining: they donated the $3,500 in catered food to the regional food bank. 

Colonie Police had not named any suspects Friday night.