Three windows in the Jasper Royal Canadian Legion and L’Ecole Desrochers School building were broken sometime between Wednesday night (Oct. 14) and Thursday (Oct. 15) morning according to Jasper RCMP.

Marie-Claude Faucher, principal of L’Ecole Desrochers, said when teachers left the school Wednesday evening there was no damage, but when they returned in the morning, the windows of the two front doors were broken and a single rock was inside which had been thrown through both doors. There was no sign of any entry, and the alarm had not been triggered, she said. A rock was also found in the front door of the Legion, leaving the upper wire-glass window in the door broken as well.

Since the school rents the building from the Legion, it was the Legion’s responsibility to repair the broken windows, which cost $800. Faucher said they were repaired almost within the hour after they were noticed.

Kim Rands, president of the Jasper Legion, said he doesn’t know why someone would want to do that to the Legion or the French school, and that since there are no suspects, the Legion has to pay for it.

“It’s just a random act of vandalism, it’s a large building; people just coming home from the bar, more than likely (are to blame). I don’t want to blame anyone in particular, but it’s no worse than tires being slashed or mirrors being kicked off, it’s just another one of those things, and we have to pick up the tab and we are struggling to stay open. It’s just more money out of the pocket and down the drain.”

Faucher said she didn’t think anyone had any leads as to who might have broken the windows, but said it is the first time that has happened to the school, and that it was a good thing it was only the door window, and not one of the classroom windows, which are wall-sized, which, she figured, are hard to break.

Police are seeking the public’s help to identify the person or persons responsible for the broken windows.

Last winter, the school’s portable was broken into and laptops were stolen, but Faucher said this was the first time someone vandalized the school for no apparent reason.

“We’ve had issues (at the Legion), we’ve had windows broken before, we’ve had windows in the back alley broken by rocks before, whoever throwing rocks through the windows for whatever reason. And, yeah, there’s a lot of large windows there, it happens on occasion, it’s just typical vandalism,” Rands said.

Anyone who has any information regarding the vandalism is asked to contact the Jasper RCMP detachment at 780-852-4421.