Students at Chilliwack Middle School aren’t using their grass field after parents found needles, condoms, and drug paraphernalia discarded on the grounds.
A few parents who scanned the school grounds, after dropping their kids off on the first day of school, are now wondering why the school district didn’t do anything to keep the field clean during the summer months.
“We found a broken crackpipe, we found a used condom… We found a pile of garbage with a bunch of needle wrappers and a needle in the weeds,” said parent Trista Dickey.
The Chilliwack School District admits homelessness and drug use in the area were problems while school was out, but they were unaware it was their responsibility to clean it up.
“There was some confusion… whether it was City of Chilliwack property or school district property. This is our responsibility to ensure that our fields are safe,” said Superintendent Evelyn Novak.
But parents say there shouldn’t have been any confusion in the first place.
“It took us five minutes at city hall to confirm whose property it was, so the fact the school doesn’t know what it owns, that raises some alarm bells,” said Dickey.
The school district now says they will limit where the students go on the property until they can be sure the field is clean. The district will also be hiring more custodial staff to sweep the field and adding security at night to keep certain groups away.
Still, parents are frustrated the problem has affected their children.
“It took media to get attention onto this matter. It’s not only this school, it’s happened at other schools where my children attend it’s sad to see,” said Randy Moojelski.
The district hopes to have the field cleared by next week.
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