Students in Ontario school district uncomfortable using washrooms in schools, study suggests

A large portion of students at a school board in eastern Ontario do not feel comfortable using the bathroom facilities at their schools, with vaping being a part of the problem.

A survey of students presented to members of the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) at a meeting on Wednesday night found that 41.3 per cent of students who responded felt comfortable using the washroom at school.

The UCDSB conducts the surveys twice a year, in March and in October, and the spring findings were down six per cent from where things stood in the fall.

Supt. Eric Hardie spoke to the board and said one of the issues was students vaping in the bathrooms at schools in the area.

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He said the location of the issue presents challenges in solving the problem.

“So how we balance that privacy with also a respectful space where people can obviously go and use the washroom for its intended purposes is really important,” Hardie explained.

He noted that there were measures the board was taking to try to resolve the matter, including one school that had created a QR code to help students, should problems in the washroom occur.

“One of the things that they did was they actually created a QR code,” the superintendent said. “This was so students could report if there were problems in the washroom, they could report anonymously, and that note basically went to the vice-principal so the vice-principal could sort of follow up.”

The UCDSB covers the easternmost stretches of Ontario, including Cornwall, Brockville and Carleton Place, basically surrounding Ottawa, but doesn’t include schools in the nation’s capital.

The spring survey also noted that bullying had increased with 28.1 per cent of respondents reporting they felt bullied, and 10 percent of those saying it was physical issues they had to contend with.

The were also positive results from the survey, including an increase in students reporting real-world learning experiences, extracurricular involvement and an awareness of where to go for mental health help.