According to our reporting partners at WNDU, it’s been less than a week since the new school year started in Michigan City, but students were told to stay home instead of going to school on Tuesday morning.
That’s because 20 to 25 catalytic converters were stolen from school buses that were parked at the district’s bus garage.
“How can someone — or I don’t know if it’s, you know, someone or a group — how can they do that when they know it’s going to affect our kids in our community?” asked Magen Mazurkiewicz, a parent of four students in Michigan City.
A driver who has been with the district since 1995 told WNDU 16 News Now she heard weird noises after she started a school bus around 5 a.m. A short time later, engineers came and saw the catalytic converter was missing.
The district soon learned converters were stolen from 15 to 20 other buses, which is about one third of the total school bus fleet.
This made school bus operations impossible and forced to call a last-minute eLearning day for all students.
“Literally this morning, right before our kids were walking to the bus, I got the news,” Mazurkiewicz said. “It’s very hard. It’s very hard.”
Mazurkiewicz said it’s been challenging for her to take care of four children taking classes at home at the same time.
“I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all,” Mazurkiewicz said. “I have my high schooler and middle schooler trying to do homework, and he hasn’t got his computer from his school yet, so he’s trying out on his iPad. It’s very, very hard to do it on the iPad.”
The school district says early learning center, pre-K and elementary schools will return to in-person learning on Wednesday. However, middle and high school students will have another eLearning day.
Michigan City police are looking into the thefts. If you have any information that can help them with their investigation, you;re asked to reach out to Cpl. Brinkman at 219-874-3221 Ext. 1088 or by email at abrinkman@emichigancity.com.
