KEY POINTS:
An end-of-year celebration at a Tauranga primary school finished in tears yesterday when students found their schoolbags ransacked and gifts they had brought for one another stolen.
The theft took place in the morning while staff and students of Welcome Bay School were holding a farewell assembly to Year 6 pupils in the school hall.
"We had had some lovely songs, beautiful speeches and some fantastic celebrations about what had happened to them during their primary school life," said acting principal Pam Vondervoort.
"Then we came out and saw the bags had been ransacked. Christmas presents and money and food and items of clothing had all gone, so they went from hero to zero in a very quick moment. I feel sorry for the children."
The bags, hanging on hooks outside two locked classrooms, were all unzipped and left lying all over the ground.
Mrs Vondervoort said the thieves went through the bags and took items ranging from Christmas gifts the students had brought for one another to clothing and lunches.
One boy lost a new pair of shoes that he had bought with pocket money earned by working at home for his parents.
"It was just one of those occasions where we feel that somebody knew this occasion might have been happening and they took advantage of the time where there were no teachers or pupils around," said Mrs Vondervoort.
School staff spent the afternoon contacting parents to tell them about the thefts.
Constable Steve Campbell described the theft as a "pretty low thing to do".
He said police were following a strong line of inquiry but would not comment further.
