Surrey Schools taking measures to combat vandalism and property harm at Halloween

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Halloween is right here, and Surrey Schools is asking college students, workers and oldsters to help the district in holding our faculties protected by reporting any acts of vandalism they might come throughout of their communities.

Every 12 months, Surrey Schools spends a substantial quantity of money and time cleansing up and repairing vandalism and property harm on college property. Last 12 months, the district skilled greater than $400,000 in acts of vandalism. These prices had been paid by way of funds that might have been higher spent supporting college students.

“Aside from the substantial financial burden of repair costs, there’s also a cost to the feeling of safety at schools,” stated Jaclyn Blaney, supervisor of Safe Schools. “Youth want to feel like their spaces are respected, that their community is taken care of, and if someone walks into a school and sees destruction, that feeling of safety is impacted. That’s an emotional cost that is associated with it.”

The Surrey Board of Education and Surrey Schools stay dedicated to lowering bills round vandalism by way of preventative measures resembling hiring non-public safety and organizing patrols by district workers of faculty properties. These patrols, typically involving small teams taking shifts to stroll round college grounds, have been proven to discourage people from vandalizing faculties on nights like Halloween.

The district additionally enlists help from Safe School Liaisons and the Community-Schools Partnership division workers for outreach on Halloween.

“The teams at the schools work really closely with their family communities to highlight the importance of being vigilant and report anything they see,” stated Blaney.

With that in thoughts, the district is asking households to maintain their eyes and ears open to any suspicious or harmful exercise at our faculties and to not hesitate in notifying the police or the district in the event that they discover something out of the odd on college property.

For cases of apparent, lively vandalism, please name 9-1-1 instantly to inform police.

For non-emergencies, the Surrey Police Non-Emergency line is 604-599-0502

And, when you’ve got any details about vandalism that has occurred at any of our faculties at anytime, please contact the police, our district, or make the most of the district’s Protecting Surrey Schools Together website (psst-bc.ca). PSST is a useful resource the place college security considerations will be reported confidentially by anybody in our college neighborhood.

Thank you to your continued help in holding our faculties and neighbourhoods protected!