Teens jailed for bus vandalism

SANDPOINT — Three Clark Fork High School students who attempted to get a day off from classes by vandalizing Lake Pend Oreille School District buses were ordered Tuesday to serve time in juvenile detention.

Zachary C. Carlson, 16, Lindsay McGinnis, 17, and Kalee Jane Sears, 14, all of Hope, were charged with felony malicious injury to property for allegedly using golf clubs to smash in the windows of several buses parked at Hope Elementary School on Nov. 29, 2006.

Judge Barbara Buchanan sentenced Carlson to 180 days in detention, with 170 days suspended and 10 days to serve, court records show. McGinnis and Sears were also given 180-day sentences, but 176 days suspended, leaving four days to serve. The trio was also placed on supervised probation for two years.

The three, according to police reports, initially planned on forcing a day off from school by unplugging the buses' engine block heaters so the vehicles couldn't be started the next day. But the three apparently worried unplugging the heaters would not be enough to halt school and returned to Hope Elementary with golf clubs.

Unbeknownst to the teens, the vandalism spree was caught on tape by a newly installed surveillance system, court documents said.