A TOUCH rugby match at Kings Park ended nastily for a group of 50 Hillcrest High School pupils when they returned to the bus to find all their bags had been stolen from their bus.
The group of 50 boys’ and girls’ bags contained their year’s school work, some had uniforms, tablets and cellphones.
According to Lindsay Gray, the school’s marketing manager, the school is an e-learning institute, so pupils had their tablets and cellphones with them at the time.
She said the pupils and three teachers who attended the match were on the outer field of the stadium. The bus driver informed the pupils that the bus would be locked and it would be safe for them to leave their stuff behind, however the school could not confirm if the bus was locked or not.
“Two of our boys went back to the bus to get items out of their bags after the first game and that’s when they discovered the robbery had taken place. We believe the robbery must have occurred in the first hour of them arriving there,” said Gray.
The school believes the bags must have been loaded onto a waiting vehicle and could not confirm if the bus driver was in attendance at the time of the robbery.
Gray said the school was compiling a list of phone numbers to track the phones while their teachers were doing their best to reassemble the pupils’ work.
“It is a huge blow when you are in Grade 11 and you lose your work because these are important exams,” said Gray.
She added that most of the bags were navy blue and black however some pupils had different bags. The school badge or logo may appear on some of the bags and tog bags.
“We appeal to anybody who finds the dumped school bags to please draw this to our attention. They can phone the school on 031 765 1215 or SA Can on 086 167 2226,” said Gray.
