Officials with the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) are defending their decision to remove the entrance doors of washrooms at a London-Ont.-area secondary school, saying the move came in response to concerns from students and families about problem behaviour.
The removal of the doors earlier this week at Strathroy District Collegiate Institute, located just west of London, has triggered an online petition calling for the decision to be reversed.
Speaking with Global News, Dennis Wright, TVDSB’s superintendent of student achievement, said the decision to remove the doors came in response to ongoing vandalism and concerns around students congregating and vaping in the washrooms.
“We did unfortunately have to close washrooms several times throughout the school year, which made them inaccessible due to vandalism… After adding staff to hallways and trying additional supervision measures, we made the decision to remove those doors,” he said.
The entrances, are designed in such a way that those in the hallway outside have no visual access to the washroom, he said, noting that this was the first time the board has considered such a move.
The board has received multiple complaints from students and staff and has incurred “significant expenses” to fix damage to stall doors and walls, seats, urinals, hand dryers, and paper towel dispensers, Wright said.
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“We’re in discussions with a couple other schools who are also experiencing high levels of vandalism, and we’ll make those decisions on a case by case basis at this point,” he said when asked if other schools may see similar washroom alterations.
A petition launched on Change.org on Wednesday is calling for the doors to be returned, citing privacy concerns for students. As of early Friday afternoon, more than 260 people had signed the petition.
Global News attempted to reach the petition starter through Change.org’s press team, but did not receive a response by publishing deadline.
“For many students, this is not about not having a secret spot to vape or vandalize, it’s about the lack of transparency in the school. It’s the lack of trust in the faculty,” the petition reads.
The petition includes an allegation among students that a security guard had taken photographs of male students in the washroom.
The allegation has not been substantiated by Global News, and the school board said it was not aware of the allegation.
“They’ve correlated the security guard incident with the removal of the bathroom doors and feel completely shafted,” the petition says, referring to students.
Wright says the board isn’t entirely sure why vandalism issues are more prevalent now than they have been in the past.
“During the pandemic there were TikTok challenges and whatnot that were encouraging students to vandalize and steal things. We did experience high levels of vandalism at that point, but we didn’t have all our students back in school,” he said.
“We suspect that some of this may be related to that behaviour going unchecked, but certainly we know that there are some socialization delays and other pieces we’re experiencing… dysregulation and other… things as a result of delays that occurred post-pandemic, but we’re not entirely sure, we’re making assumptions at this point.”
Similar decisions have been made by other school boards across Canada, including in Waterloo Region and in British Columbia. Earlier this year, a high school in Winnipeg had a washroom door reinstalled after pushback from the community. The door had been removed as a result of indoor vaping, according to school board officials.
Vandalism and safety concerns were also cited in a decision earlier this week by the Upper Grand District School Board to remove the door of a washroom at Orangeville District Secondary School.
The TVDSB will track the number of incidents reported by students and staff to see if removing the doors had any impact, Wright said.