ROSEVILLE-
The last bell of the last day for Roseville High School rang Thursday, but being escorted off campus by police was not the walk seniors Jordan Loya and Joe Evans planned on taking.
“We thought it might be a rival school or underclassmen. It was really crazy to find out it was actually our own class,” senior Samantha Cheek said.
Roseville police led both teens off-campus in handcuffs. Investigators believe the two were responsible for the early-morning arson that burned down the school’s graduation stage and left an enormous, black scorch mark in the stadium’s Astroturf. Classmates identified the two to FOX40.
“Before going to first period I had to go look for myself, and it was just black. It was totaled,” senior Lacey Lowrie said.
The school district estimates hundred thousand dollars in damage. Loya and Evans are facing arson, felony vandalism and conspiracy charges.
Police say this was no senior prank.
“It’s obviously a serious matter. It’s a felony that caused a lot of damage. I think that’s what differentiates this incident from being just an average high school prank,” Roseville Police Sergeant Kelby Newton told FOX40.
But how much damage have the two young men done to themselves in this moment of donning adulthood? Do they deserve diplomas?
“Oh no. Not at all. They burnt down the stage we were supposed to walk across,” Cheek said.