When students of Ladyville Evangelical Primary School walked back into their classrooms on the morning of Monday, May 25, 2026, they were met with a devastating scene. Overnight over the weekend, burglars had forced entry into the campus’ classroom wings, ransacked multiple learning spaces, and targeted a deeply meaningful project: handcrafted piggy banks belonging to the school’s Infant Two students, who had been saving loose change for five months as part of a hands-on financial literacy program.
Among the wreckage left by the intruders, dozens of these handmade savings containers were smashed open and completely emptied, leaving nothing but broken fragments of what the young children — all between six and seven years old — had built up steadily since the start of the year. Principal Elia Chi shared details of the project with local outlet News 5, explaining that the savings initiative was far more than a simple fun activity for the early primary students.
Since January, the children had been adding small coins to their personal piggy banks, with a plan to count their total savings at the end of the school year in June before deciding together how to use the money they had accumulated. The core goals of the program extended beyond basic money skills: it was designed to instill core values of patience, self-discipline, and personal responsibility from a young age.
Instead of celebrating their growing savings this week, teachers were forced to have heartbreaking conversations with their young students, explaining that all the money they had put aside was stolen. Law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation and are currently working to trace and apprehend the burglars responsible for the theft.
In the wake of the upsetting incident, however, an outpouring of community support has quickly emerged. Local residents have already stepped forward to donate new materials for piggy banks and contribute replacement funds, allowing the young students to restart their savings project and learn that their community stands behind them.