Yipirinya students steal school bus, crash stolen car in one week

An Alice Springs principal is reeling after students broke into the school to steal one of its buses, before crashing another stolen vehicle into a tree just days later.

An Alice Springs school principal says some of his students have been “crying out for help” after they stole a school bus just days before another stolen car was crashed into a tree.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris said eight kids, some as young as seven-years-old, broke into the Alice Springs school on Thursday night and stole a school bus.

After intercepting the bus police said they dropped the kids under the age of criminal responsibility back home, while one older child was dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.

“Some of those kids came to school Friday and then Friday night, (some) kids broke back into the school again,” Mr Morris said.

Just days later five kids aged 10 to 12-years-old were driving a stolen car around town when it crashed into a tree.

Mr Morris said the kids had been driving around for five hours, without wearing seatbelts, before the collision.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris said it was not the first time students had stolen a bus and taken it for a joy ride. Picture: Grenville Turner

“I actually thought Monday night was the night where it was going to be an event which we couldn’t reverse,” he said.

“Talking to the first responders at the hospital that night, they’re amazed that the kids didn’t go through the windscreen and die.

“It’s an absolute fluke that no one was severely injured or worse.”

Police said one of the kids involved in the car crash was also among the group that broke into Yipirinya School and stole its school bus last week.

“This is their cry for help – they’re obviously trying to tell us something, and we’re not listening,” Mr Morris said.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Dole said the kids had stolen a Ford Falcon from Speed St in The Gap before they were found at the crash scene.

“Three of the youths from the motor vehicle crash were below the age of criminal responsibility and two of those youth were 12-years-of-age and are being assessed under the Youth Justice Act in relation to that offending,” he said.

Mr Morris said he was not convinced contact had been made with the families involved after the first incident.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Dole said despite the two incidents involving Yipirinya School students, police have seen a steady decline in both youth and adult offending since January. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“I challenge whether any of that occurred on Thursday night … I went down there to speak to family on the weekend and they had no idea of what was going on,” he said.

However Mr Dole said that was not the case.

“When police take somebody’s young person home, we have to ensure that there’s a responsible adult at that premises,” he said.

“Living arrangements sometimes can mean that there’s seven or eight people in that house … it may be that one of the parents wasn’t spoken to at the time, but there were certainly responsible adults at that house that knew of the behaviour.”