The lowest of the low

Does it get any worse than this? Check this out, from The Press:

When Jacki Morris arrived at Ferndale School this morning to inspect the site's serious earthquake damage, what she found was far more distressing than the 15cm gash in the lawn.

The Merivale school for special needs children was burgled on Wednesday night. Windows were jemmied open, sheds and filing cabinets ransacked, and thousands of dollars worth of digital equipment taken.

The discovery left Morris - the school's board chairwoman and mother of 8-year-old autistic school pupil Matthew - numb with shock.

''It was gut-wrenching. We're more shocked than after the earthquake. That's something that nature does to you. But to think someone can do this, that's a completely different kettle of fish. It's so much harder to process. To a school that is not a school with a lot of money, when we are at our most vulnerable.''

The stolen equipment was used by speech therapists to assess the school's more than 100 pupils, who range in age from five to 21. Some cannot talk and require tube feeding.

The school was already struggling to deal with the implications of cracks in paths, bowed beams and buckled walls that have made the classrooms unusable until at least Wednesday. The theft would further set back the school's progress and would be another blow to already stressed families trying to explain to their children why they could not go to school, Morris said.

Sometimes, we simply despair. It's hard to believe that in this country there are people who would stoop this low, especially at a time such as this. To use a line from one of our all-time favourite movies Monty Python's Life of Brian

Crucifixion's too good for 'em

We're truly lost for words at this callous act ...