Following a theft of around $400 from the Special Education Department, senior Mimi Fhima said she and senior Sophie Yarosh felt inspired to act by starting a GoFundMe fundraiser.

“We felt really bad about how the money had been stolen,” Fhima said. “We couldn’t do anything directly to help so we (figured) this is the best way (to help).”

According to Special Education teacher Christine Tvrdik, the money was taken from room C159, one of the department classrooms.

“We keep the money in a little safe thing but it’s not locked,” Tvrdik said. “We’ve kept it in the same place because a lot of staff and a lot of students need access to it, but we noticed last week on Tuesday that $400 was missing from the money.”

Tvrdik said the Special Education students make a donation every year during the holiday season, which led to heightened disappointment following the robbery.

“(The robbery is) just a bummer because the kids put a lot of effort into it and it’s nice to make the donation, so I think the hardest part of it is the timing,” Tvrdik said. “We make a donation towards the beginning of the year then try to save up to do something bigger before winter break.”

Senior Savannah Kjaer said after finding out about the incident, she donated to the GoFundMe as a way to show support for the Special Education department.

“All that I saw were the Facebook posts, I just heard that someone took it and obviously that horrible,” Kjaer said. “I thought (donating) was just a way to do my part to fix it just because (the robbery is) such a terrible thing to happen.”

Tvrdik said although the school sought to find the money, it is difficult to find and return stolen cash.

“We did investigation and the student office was notified,” Tvrdik said. “Unfortunately with cash, it’s a hard thing to track or know what happened, so I mean we did our best to investigate but it’s more just unfortunate.”

Fhima said she got the idea to start a fundraiser after Yarosh posted about the robbery on Facebook.

“(Sophie) posted it in the senior facebook group, and obviously a lot of people were really upset,” Fhima said. “I was looking through the comments a couple of days later and Alec Pittman had said someone should start a GoFundMe and start raising the money.”

According to the GoFundMe website, the fundraiser has accumulated over $750 so far, almost doubling the intended amount.

Kjaer said the fundraiser is a great way to show the department that they are appreciated.

“(The GoFundMe is) a great way to show we as a school still support their efforts,” Kjaer said. “It’s a way to show just because one bad person did that there’s still a lot of people standing behind them.”

Tvrdik said she was overwhelmed by the community support after seeing the GoFundMe.

“I was really blown away,” Tvrdik said. “It’s really sweet and really supportive of students and people in the community. I saw there was parents and students who donated money. We had a student come in today into the coffee shop buy a donut and just give us extra money as a donation. It’s cool that people are so supportive.”