Worker charged for causing $20,000 in damages to new Squirrel Hill school

PITTSBURGH — A newly renovated school building was damaged by water days after reopening, and police say the incident was not an accident.

Michael George, 47, is charged with criminal mischief and institutional vandalism after allegedly letting water run in a bathroom overnight at Hillel Academy last month, which had just opened days before.

Police say surveillance video shows George, a long-time employee of a third-party cleaning service, ignoring water flowing from a second-floor bathroom and even moping the floor as the flooding grows. They say there was no break, but that a service line had been unscrewed by hand.

The building has been in the community since 1947 — it’s well known, well-loved and students and parents were very invested in the renovations.

Channel 11 spoke with a parent who’s grandparents actually founded the school. She told us every place of business has bad eggs, and this could have happened anywhere.

We did reach out to the company that employs George, but did not hear back.

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