I WOULD like to thank the members of the wonderful Tavistock community for their sympathy and concern about the recent damage to Tavistock College as reported in your article on August 22.
I must also thank the college's fantastic site team for clearing up all the debris caused by the vandalism — it was a massive job, but we were able to open on Wednesday as planned. It always amazes me when events like this happen, although very rarely at the college.
I was concerned to see from Ken Sanders' comments in the same article that there had been other incidents of mindless damage to property in the Meadows.
What is clear is that the number of individuals who would set out to damage their community in this way is very small, and they can only be of a young age.
The plain fact is that there is a minority of parents in Tavistock who either cannot, or will not, take responsibility for the supervision of their children. It must also be true that these individuals are well known to their neighbours and were probably seen by residents, as they entered the college on the weekend of August 16.
I do not see why, in an area like Tavistock, we should constantly expect people who work in schools, community groups and clubs, churches or for the council to simply shrug their shoulders and clear up the debris yet again.
For the sake of all those people who want to continue to build a vibrant community in Tavistock, I ask anyone who has information to make it known to the police.
Finally, readers of your excellent paper may have noted that the superb achievements of our A Level students in achieving one of the highest success rates in the south-west were published on page three.
Is it churlish to wish that these achievements should have been on the front page, and the news of the vandalism given a secondary profile? Sometimes it is a good idea to deny to perpetrators of crime the satisfaction of their own publicity.
John Simes
Principal
Tavistock College