Soccer nets at East Royalty school removed to prevent further vandalism

An elementary school in East Royalty has put away its soccer nets to prevent further vandalism after the zip ties that attach the net to the goal post were cut. 

L.M. Montgomery Elementary had the nets installed in June. 

Cara Dempsey, co-chair of the L.M. Montgomery Home and School Association, discovered the net was cut down just before a meeting at the school's playground. 

"We had two of our members actually find some of the zip ties that were holding up the nets, and it looked like they had been cut off. So yeah, kind of disappointing to see that."

The nets were installed to make soccer more fun for the students, she said.

This is parents of the community and people of the community that have been generously donating their money to help support the playground initiatives.— Cara Dempsey

"The poor kids had to run down a hill to catch the soccer ball," Dempsey said.

"So it was one of the initiatives that we were hoping to have done with a lot of the fundraising that we've been doing over the past couple of years for new playground equipment."

An investment for children

 The three sets that were purchased cost over $1,000.

"This is parents of the community and people of the community that have been generously donating their money to help support the playground initiatives that we have in place to make things better for our students, and this massive community that is being built around the school itself," she said.

Dempsey did not reach out to the police since the nets were not damaged. However, she wants community members to help monitor the playground.

"Things like this unfortunately do happen but hopefully putting it out to the public, hopefully to the people that live in the area, just maybe you'll have extra eyes on the playground as we can't be there all the time, especially during the summer." 

 L.M. Montgomery Elementary will have the nets installed again when school resumes.

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