Students, staff, parents and clergy gather outside St. Bridget for a blessing ceremony before entering the school on Friday, May 30. The school was closed for repairs following vandalism that took place between 1-4 a.m. on Thursday, May 29. (St. Bridget Catholic School, used with permission)
Anita Draper
Catholic Herald staff
A former student of St. Bridget Catholic School, River Falls, has been arrested for smashing windows at the school and a series of downtown businesses in the early morning hours of Thursday, May 29.
Michael Leary, principal of St. Bridget, said the school had 13 broken windows and classes were canceled on Thursday.
A pre-kindergarten classroom with two shattered windows was particularly hard hit; an estimate of the cost of the damage has not been completed, but Leary predicted, “It’s going to be significant.”
Leary said the suspect was caught on camera walking through River Falls’ Main Street, beginning at the north end, lobbing rocks through windows at a series of businesses – a gas station, an assisted living facility, restaurants and more.
He said the suspect broke “huge storefront windows … that I can even imagine might be more in terms of the amount of damage done” than at St. Bridget, where only standard-sized windows were targeted. He also destroyed the outdoor umbrellas at Dunkin’ Donuts.
At the school, Leary said the suspect, who attended the school through fourth grade, was caught on camera playing on the playground equipment and checking his phone while casually throwing rocks.
Leary felt the motivation for the attack was not readily apparent, but he did not feel the school was specifically targeted for any reason beyond its location. The suspect did not appear angry in the footage recorded by the high-definition video cameras the school installed last summer, Leary commented.
“We don’t think it was personal,” he added.
The River Falls Police Department was not available for comment until after press time, and they have not released the name of the suspect to the media.
The Catholic Herald, too, is declining to release his name at this time, although the 18-year-old was charged with seven counts of criminal damage to property, which includes six misdemeanor counts and one felony count for damage exceeding $2,500.
Cash bond was set at $1,000 May 30 in St. Croix County Circuit Court. Conditions of the defendant’s bail include maintaining absolute sobriety, a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and no contact with complainants.
He was set to make his next appearance June 4.
Aftermath
Leary was at an eighth-grade retreat in Amery when the vandalism occurred. He came back at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning to find parents and other community members hard at work cleaning up glass.
By noon, there were three or four people working on every broken window, he said, and they were turning away volunteers. Then, a “half-dozen dads” turned up to cut and install plywood, and they were done by 1 p.m.
People were bringing food, and restaurants were offering free food for volunteers; the community truly came together, according to Leary.
The school reopened the following day, Friday, May 30. Fr. Balaraju Policetty held a blessing ceremony in the parking lot, then blessed each room inside the building as well. Many parents also attended in addition to staff and students, Leary said, although the middle school students were away on retreat.
As the conversation ended, Leary’s thoughts turned to the family of the defendant. The suspect and his siblings attended the school for various lengths of time, and Leary hopes the community will be merciful to the family.
“I just pray that people don’t try and judge his family, which people kind of tend to do,” he said.
