'It’s pretty messed up': Vaping and vandalism continue to impact high school students and staff across the region
It’s an issue affecting local high schools across both the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) and the London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB).
"It's pretty messed up, I’m not even going to lie…the washrooms are always closed because of people vaping, smoking weed, doing drugs etc.,” said frustrated eleventh grader Adam Moustafa.
And he’s not alone.
“It's awful, one it smells awful, you see these pods everywhere, one time the toilet, you couldn't flush it because there was so many pod things in there,” added another eleventh grader, Aiden Sutcliffe.
Vaping inside washrooms has become a common scene within high schools across the region.
Moustafa and Sutcliffe are among dozens of students who spoke with CTV News London outside Sir Fredrick Banting Secondary School Tuesday morning, complaining about the current state of the washrooms inside their high school.
It’s an issue that both school boards are well aware of and are working to address.
"We've increased supervision, we're looking at alternate measures such as installing vape detectors, etc. We continue to work with parents and students to try really encourage them to engage in positive behaviours around the school,” explained Dennis Wright, superintendent of safe schools and mental health with the TVDSB.
There have been several reported instances where school staff have been forced to close washrooms due to health and safety concerns. However, both boards said at no point have students been left with no washroom access.
"We do have one specific example where we had a facilities emergency and within 10 minutes we had trucks pull in with porta potties just so we could provide that,” he said.
Wright adds that school support councillors have been added in some schools to engage with students in hallways, cafeterias and parking lots to encourage good behaviour and respect school property.
But it’s not just the vaping, there’s also been increased vandalism to washroom facilities, including damaging doors, toilets, sinks and ripping out soap dispensers from the wall.
"It became really noticeable a few years ago. If you remember, when the TikTok challenge happening [and encouraging] the vandalism,” said Roberta Gibson, assistant superintendent of education with LDCSB.
That challenge, dubbed the “devious lick” gained popularity on social media — a trend which involved students posting videos that show them stealing or damaging items taken from their school, most often, from their washrooms.
"We still don't have a soap dispensers in the girls’ washroom downstairs,” said eleventh grader Hala Alzureigi, who adds the school had to remove the doors to some of the washrooms to be able to monitor the behaviour.
“I think it's an ongoing challenge that will continue to be, as students work through those parts of their lives. So I think that, you know, especially with the vaping being so prevalent, with continued monitoring and continued interventions and working with our students to understand the dangers of vaping can help...diminish it,” explained Gibson.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.
What's causing the catastrophic rainfall in Kenya?
The torrential rains and deadly floods that have hit Kenya since March have been some of the worst in the country in recent years. Here's how factors combined to create the deadly deluge.