Vandal causes over $5,000 in damage to Pleasant Creek School

MT. PLEASANT, Sanpete County – Staff at a small school in Pleasant Creek are working together to clean up thousands of dollars in damage caused by a vandal.

According to Pleasant Creek School principal Steven Solen, the vandal broke into the school through a window around 10:30 p.m. Friday. For about an hour and a half, security cameras captured him going into classrooms, taking laptops, and then smashing the security cameras.

“He broke into the teacher’s lounge and started smashing all their laptops and iPads,” Solen said.

Solen said the vandal caused the school between $5,000 and $10,000 in damage, including damage to the doors, windows, and vending machines.

“It’s like someone broke into your house, you know, it’s the same thing because this is stuff that we’ve put our hearts and souls into to make us the best school that we can for the students and when someone just violates that, destroys the things that you’ve been working so hard to help students with, it just kind of tugs at your heart,” he said.

Solen was alerted to the break-in on Saturday morning by a group using the school. That afternoon, the Mount Pleasant Police Department posted a photo of the suspect on its Facebook page. Within hours, the community had identified him, and he was taken into custody.

According to arrest documents, Kayden Gilbert England, 21, was booked into the Sanpete County Jail on suspicion of burglary, criminal mischief resulting in the loss of $5,000 or less, and construction of justice.

Documents stated that England damaged school property with an axe that he found inside the school. England told police that he had destroyed several laptops and security cameras to erase the evidence that he was in the school.

“This is what I love about small towns,” the social media post by Mount Pleasant Police Department chief Steve Gray stated. “We work together to solve problems. Thanks to the tips from our citizens, we have identified the suspect, and he has been taken into custody.”

Solen said cleanup continued at the school Monday as students and staff returned to campus. While repairing the damaged doors and windows will take time, the North Sanpete School District quickly stepped in to replace the security cameras and damaged laptops.

“We still have glass in certain places, it’s really hard to clean up, but everybody’s just come in with a good attitude and said, ‘Hey, let’s just keep moving,’” Solen said.

Contributing: Michael Houck, KSL TV