Concerns about non-functioning washrooms at Smithers Secondary School will be addressed at the end of the school year.
“We have a massive bathroom renovation coming next June,” explained Smithers Secondary School (SSS) principal Julie Krall.
The new bathrooms will adapt to the architectural layout that has been adopted across multiple school districts and recreational facilities throughout B.C. The facilities will feature a row of private non-gender-specific stalls, with a shared sink in the middle.
“It’s been a massive journey for us and a lot of us have worked hard to get to a good place right now with the washrooms,” said Krall.
Responding to concerns of parents, Krall explained that, around three years ago, vandalism was a recurring problem in the boys washrooms. A TikTok trend called “devious licks” encouraged students to take videos of themselves stealing from their schools to create viral content.
“It started off with smaller things,” explained Krall. “Some parents would come in, and their kid had come home with a bag of staplers and things that they’d stolen from their classrooms.”
“Unfortunately, it progressed to larger things in the bathrooms, like soap dispensers, anything that can be pulled off walls.”
When Krall arrived at the school three years ago, two toilets had been pulled off of their foundation, leaving the washroom “unfixable.”
The planning process for the new bathrooms is in progress, with engineers and architects visiting the school for a final assessment Nov. 20.
“We have working bathrooms for boys and we have lots of working bathrooms for girls,” explained Krall, assuring parents that students will always have access to proper facilities. The school currently has one gender-neutral washroom, located near the office, that can be accessed by staff, students and visitors, whenever the school is open.
The girls currently have access to more stalls, because vandalism hasn’t been a concern in the girls’ facilities, but concerns have also been raised about vaping.
Krall said that all the bathrooms at SSS are monitored on an almost hourly basis, to limit vaping.
“I actually very rarely catch anyone vaping,” said Krall.
“We still put an incredible amount of energy into our bathrooms,” explained Krall. “It’s kind of a sad situation what happened a few years ago… but right now we have almost no vandalism.”
The seven-week renovation is planned to take place over the summer, with three classrooms being removed to make space for the new stalls.
The renovations will start in June to ensure the facilities are ready for the 2024/2025 school year.