WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Every seat on 17 school buses in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools parking lot was slashed over last weekend, Winston-Salem Journal reports.

Bus drivers discovered the vandalism when they returned to their buses on Monday morning, according to the newspaper. Employees found seats slashed on all the buses that were parked along the back row in the lot.

The lot was locked, but it appeared that the vandal or vandals climbed a tree and stepped onto the barbed wire-topped fence surrounding the lot, Darrell Taylor, the transportation director for the district, told Winston-Salem Journal. Most of the buses are equipped with cameras, so district officials are checking whether the incident was recorded.

The damage to the buses was estimated to be nearly $50,000, with almost 400 seats having been damaged, Taylor told the newspaper. He added that some of the seats and seat foam were so torn that they would need to be replaced. He also said that one of the buses’ seats was temporarily repaired with duct tape and used for the morning route, and the other 16 buses were replaced by substitute buses.  

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