Glen Rock Teen Drove Car Onto High School Track: Police

GLEN ROCK, NJ — An investigation into the vandalism at Glen Rock High School following this year's graduation has resulted in motor vehicle summonses for one local teenager, but no criminal charges due to a lack of cooperation from potential witnesses, and insufficient video evidence, police said.

An 18-year-old Glen Rock man was issued summonses for reckless driving and a violation of New Jersey's graduated driver's license provisions after police said he drove a vehicle onto the track around the high school field. But Glen Rock police are set to declare the case inactive after a more than two week investigation into damage done on the school's football field without any further charges or summonses to be issued.

School security reported that chairs left on the field after the ceremony were knocked over, and planters were destroyed, around 7:30 a.m. on June 18. A panther statue was also stolen from the campus. Read more: Glen Rock High Panther Statue Destroyed, Police Investigating

Though it was eventually returned, officials determined that the statue was destroyed.

Principal Michael Parent, in a letter, said that "quite a few community members and students have informed us that this disgraceful act was committed by our own students."

Though police received "unsubstantiated, third party, anonymous tips" about who may have been responsible for the damages, none of them "could be corroborated with actual evidence that would be admissible in any court."

Police said they identified potential witnesses, but all "declined to provide any information of substance."

School district security and administration did cooperate with the investigation, providing video and surveillance images to police. However, those images were "insufficient to identify anyone committing an unlawful act, beyond the motor vehicle violation charged," police said.

The vandalism at the high school wasn't the only disruption potentially caused by juveniles in the hours after the June graduation.

Officers came across numerous large groups starting at 3 a.m. "through daybreak", including groups as large as 100 people, police said at the time.

When a group gathered on train tracks in the area, police had to get assistance from NJ Transit to stop train traffic on the Bergen County line, police said.

"Juveniles were dispersed from the various areas that they were gathering in if circumstances permitted the three officers on duty to do so," the department said.

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