Earl Marriott students shamed on social media after bush party mess

WATCH: A group of students were shamed on social media for trashing a camp site last weekend. Jeremy Hunka reports.

A group of Surrey students were shamed on social media for trashing a campsite over the Victoria Day long weekend.

Members of a Fraser Valley off-roading association say the mess left behind after a party near Harrison Lake is the worst they’ve ever seen.

“It makes me sick to my stomach, just seeing pristine wildlife and a nice area just completely trashed by people who are reckless,” said Dane Robertson, who is helping clean up the aftermath of a bush party that saw campers leave behind everything from bullet casings to toilet paper and even toilet seats.

Vaughn Delgren sparked a storm on social media when he posted photos of the aftermath of the bush party at the “Big Silver” area of Harrison Lake. Delgren said “there were used condoms everywhere. One of the nicer camp spots was turned into a toilet, toilet paper and just human feces everywhere. It was pretty horrible.”

The culprits left some clues to their identity, leaving behind trash littered with the insignia from Surrey’s Earl Marriott Secondary.

Doug Strachan of the Surrey School District said he hopes that the culprits volunteer on their own to help clean up the site.

“It’s pretty near impossible to identify specifically who did it, but that hasn’t precluded the students, parents and staff to go out there and do the clean-up themselves.”

Earl Marriott has organized a Grad Class clean-up. In a letter posted on the school’s website, Principal Ken Hignell wrote:

“Social responsibility is a school goal; we need to address the situation and demonstrate that the vast majority of our students appreciate and understand their civic responsibilities. We are requesting that students ‘do the right thing’ and volunteer to return to ‘Big Silver’ to clean it up. We will put together a clean-up team of students and staff to travel to the campsite to help restore the area. We are asking students who went camping and students who would like to display their social responsibility to the environment and to our school, to join us.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Social responsibility is a school goal; we need to address the situation and demonstrate that the vast majority of our students appreciate and understand their civic responsibilities. We are requesting that students 'do the right thing' and volunteer to return to 'Big Silver' to clean it up. We will put together a clean-up team of students and staff to travel to the campsite to help restore the area. We are asking students who went camping and students who would like to display their social responsibility to the environment and to our school, to join us."

On Saturday, Hignell tweeted out photos from the clean-up effort:

The captain of the Earl Marriott rugby team issued an apology:

The local off-roading association says an unseasonably warm spring could be behind a surge in sloppy campers. Though policing can be limited in the backcountry, they are frustrated enough to offer a warning.

“We can’t really take the law into our own hands, but we are watching and we will report you,” said Delgren.

-with files from Jeremy Hunka