Credit: Courtesy: Cleveland Metropolitan School District
During the joyous, raucous celebration of the 2016 Cavaliers championship on the streets of downtown Cleveland, fans destroyed a police cruiser. This was small potatoes compared to the revelry and mayhem in Philadelphia Sunday night, but the cruiser’s damage in Cleveland was nevertheless considered extensive and beyond repair. Two people were arrested.
But the story has a happy ending.

As originally reported by Fox 8, Max Hayes High School teacher Greg Boykin saw the busted cruiser on the news that June night and saw a potential project for his students. Max Hayes, formerly a vocational high school, now gives students opportunities to learn high-tech skills in the fields of construction, engineering, manufacturing and mechanics.

Boykin approached the city about letting his auto body students try their hand at repairing the damaged vehicle.

For the past year-and-a-half, students have worked on a complete refurbishing effort: sanding, painting and buffing the exterior; replacing its roof, hood and side panels. Fox 8 reported that materials were donated by Sherwin Williams, Safelite Auto Glass, Meguiar’s, Dollar Bank and United Sales.

And last week, the students completed the repair and returned it to the Cleveland Police. It’ll reportedly be put back into service as a zone car.

The city’s Division of Motor Vehicle Maintenance Commissioner Jeff Brown was ecstatic. He’d pegged the vehicle as totaled and said the city had planned to scrap it for parts, and that the Max Hayes students’ work saved the city about $10,000.

“It’s absolutely fantastic,” he said.

Credit: Courtesy: Cleveland Metropolitan School District

This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2018.

Sam Allard is a former senior writer at Scene.

2 replies on “CMSD Students Repaired Police Cruiser Fans Totaled During 2016 Cavs Championship Celebration”

  1. At 18-months, I bet they beat the real turn-around time for average CPD City Garage repair jobs !

    Seriously though, saying the students are getting state-of-the-art education by refurbishing a 2007 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is a bit ludicrous, I know, I have one, and that old-iron V-8 doesn’t even have electronic ignition, or fuel injectors, but it will go over 300,000 miles, without much of a problem, baring CAVS Fans.

  2. I always love seeing Sherwin Williams, a company with $10 billion revenue, donating supplies to small projects like this. They’ve also donated graffiti cleanup supplies to local stores that get vandalized.

    This project is overall great news – glad it will be put back into use. I don’t see anywhere that says “state-of-the-art education”, I’m sure it was a great practical experience for the students, and saving the city $10k is a nice bonus.

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