VOORHEESVILLE — District administrators last week dealt with a senior vandalism prank gone awry, and the second bomb threat in the space of two months.

Superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder told The Enterprise this week that the vandalism and the bomb threat are “two distinct and totally separate issues.”

News of both incidents was sent out to parents via the district’s school news notifier, or SNN, system.

Vandalism

On Friday, April 24, four Voorheesville students were arrested by Albany County Sheriff’s deputies for third-degree criminal trespass, a misdemeanor:

— Shane S. Parry, 17, of 534 Stovepipe Road, Voorheesville;

— Ian Kundel, 17, of 44 Springfield Dr., Voorheesville;

— David Cardona, 18, of 6 Greystone Dr., Voorheesville; and

— Robert Denman, 18, of 162 Maple Rd., Voorheesville.

They are due in New Scotland Town Court on May 7.

Police reviewed film from security cameras as part of their investigation, the district said in its SNN message.

“The beginning charge is vandalism,” Snyder told The Enterprise. “There’s a lot of stuff belonging to students that was damaged. A teacher fell because of the stuff, the goop.”

According to the police report, the deputies arrested the four students for littering several hallways with textbooks, paperwork, and garbage. The students entered the school through a classroom window overnight on April 23 or 24, then emptied lockers and recycling bins, the report says. The vandals poured syrup, lotion, glitter, and barbecue sauce in the hallways and on doors and lockers, the report says.

The teacher’s fall after slipping on the mess “ramps it up big-time for how serious it is,” Snyder said.

A district custodian, Sean Kelly, arrived at the school and found hallways had been trashed. He reported the vandalism to the head custodian and Snyder before the police were called.

At 6:17 a.m. on April 24, deputies responded to the call about the break-in, the sheriff’s office said in a press release.

“My custodians had it cleaned up in pronto time,” Snyder said, “before the students got here…other than a little glitter.”

Students and staff arrived as the clean-up was being completed, she said.

“The rest of the students [who were not involved] helped pick up stuff,” Snyder said. They joined staff members in “collecting damaged goods into one room,” she said.

Snyder said that the vandalism may have begun as a senior prank. She said that she reminds students that a prank involves humor.

“There’s no humor right now,” she said. Actions, she said, often have unintended consequences.

Bomb threat

On Tuesday, April 21, staff members found that a bomb threat had been written on a restroom door, Snyder confirmed. A similar threat was written on a restroom door in February.

“Thanks to some rapid intervention, we deemed it was not a credible threat and we were able to continue with classes,” the school said in its school news feed early Tuesday.  One student was removed from class and taken to the sheriff’s office for questioning, according to the district.

“The matter is still under investigation,” Chief Deputy Michael S. Monteleone of the sheriff’s office told The Enterprise about last week’s bomb threat. “I anticipate that there will be a development in this case by the end of the week,” he stated on Tuesday.

In February, middle and high school students and staff briefly evacuated their buildings after students found a bomb threat penned on a bathroom door.

Seven police agencies, and seven police dogs, searched the two schools while students who had been evacuated by bus waited at both the elementary school down the road, and St. Matthew’s Church nearby.

After police said the buildings were safe, students returned to the schools and finished their school day.

“The children were safe,” Snyder said then.

“Both of the events may be linked,” Monteleone said this week.

The district had not yet set in action a disciplinary plan for either the student questioned for making the bomb threat or the students questioned for the break-in, Snyder said. The youth accused of making the bomb threat last week was still in class on Monday, she said, but the students arrested for the vandalism were not.

“It’s in the hands of the police,” she said.

Snyder said that the incidents had not adversely affected the students or the faculty. On Friday night after the morning break-in, the faculty held a previously-planned talent show as a fundraiser for the Coach - Ed Foundation, a charitable organization that supports cystic fibrosis patients and their families, Snyder said. 

“It was an absolutely splendid event,” she said, and shows “resilience in a week of not typical and not pleasant” circumstances.