Port Coquitlam mom calls for change after survey reveals student concerns in washrooms

A Port Coquitlam parent is calling for safety to be addressed after a survey suggested a majority of Terry Fox Secondary students don’t feel comfortable using the washroom at school.

The survey was conducted by the school’s Student Voice Committee, claiming 75 per cent of students feel uncomfortable using the washroom. 

Posters were hung up around the school, providing students with a QR code to alert staff about a problem.

The parent — who wished to be referred to as ‘Sarah’ for anonymity — tells 1130 NewsRadio she thinks the district and the province should be aware of the problem. 

“Seventy-five per cent is ridiculous. Being one of the largest school districts in the province, they should be able to utilize and access emergency funding for additional staff immediately,” said Sarah.

She says now that most students and staff are aware of the statistic; they should be alarmed.

“I know the bathrooms have been rumoured to be bad, but when I saw that a survey has been conducted, the results are in.”

In a statement to 1130 NewsRadio, Terry Fox Secondary School said that students are primarily concerned about vaping in the washrooms.

“‘Unsafe’ was perhaps too strong a word we discovered when we talked to individual students, but that was the word we used on the survey, so we can live with it,” school officials said.

The school stresses that in a more recent survey, it found only 41 per cent of students feel uncomfortable using the washroom. The school claims it has addressed the issue of vaping in bathrooms. 

“Our Student Voice Committee was very instrumental in bringing attention to this, even to the point of making a video we share with the students, and with Student Voice involvement, we created a QR code system,” the statement said. 

“Students scan a code if they see something they aren’t happy about. It’s not just vaping that they report, by the way. They use the code to let us know about other more mundane concerns in the bathroom, like dispensers out of soap, toilets not working properly, or a lack of toilet paper. The code sends an email to the admin. It is anonymous, so we don’t know who sent them in.”

But Sarah says physical safety is a real concern. She says her son was threatened in the washroom this year. 

“I asked them what he did and if he scanned the app, and he said, ‘No, I haven’t, myself.’ And I’m like, ‘Great, so now every time he’s going to the bathroom, there’s going to be issues.'”

Terry Fox Seconday claims it’s “data-driven” and is working to reduce the 41 per cent number as well.

“We are proud of our students for taking a leadership role and for the sense of shared responsibility we all have to make the school as safe, caring, and welcoming as possible.”

Coquitlam school district says they take concerns seriously

In an email, David Starr with the Coquitlam school district says many of the survey’s responses were about a shortage of soap and toilet paper with about a third of replies focused on vaping. They add they made good progress on addressing student’s concerns and pointed to their latest survey showing the number of students feeling uncomfortable had dropped to 41 per cent.

As for concerns around physical safety, Starr said those conflicts are always taken seriously — although they’re rare.

“All high schools have issues around interpersonal conflict between students. We have very few physical conflicts between students and on the rare events they do happen, there is usually a history of conflict between the students and there is always a response that involves school staff and parents,” said Starr.

Starr adds that their most recent Youth Development Index (YDI) survey found 88 per cent of students reported feeling safe at school and 80 per cent reported no issues in regards to bullying, threats, or social exclusion.

Editor’s note: the wording of the survey results has been corrected to say that 75 per cent of students felt “uncomfortable,” not “unsafe.”