Surrey Schools taking measures to fight vandalism and property damage at Halloween

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Halloween is here, and Surrey Schools is asking students, staff and parents to support the district in keeping our schools safe by reporting any acts of vandalism they may come across in their communities.

Every year, Surrey Schools spends a considerable amount of time and money cleaning up and repairing vandalism and property damage on school property. Last year, the district experienced more than $400,000 in acts of vandalism. These costs were paid through funds that would have been better spent supporting students.

“Aside from the substantial financial burden of repair costs, there’s also a cost to the feeling of safety at schools,” said Jaclyn Blaney, manager 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 remain committed to reducing expenses around vandalism through preventative measures such as hiring private security and organizing patrols by district staff of school properties. These patrols, often involving small groups taking shifts to walk around school grounds, have been shown to deter individuals from vandalizing schools on nights like Halloween.

The district also enlists support from Safe School Liaisons and the Community-Schools Partnership department staff 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,” said Blaney.

With that in mind, the district is asking families to keep their eyes and ears open to any suspicious or dangerous activity at our schools and to not hesitate in notifying the police or the district if they notice anything out of the ordinary on school property.

For instances of obvious, active vandalism, please call 9-1-1 immediately to notify police.

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

And, if you have any information about vandalism that has occurred at any of our schools at anytime, please contact the police, our district, or utilize the district’s Protecting Surrey Schools Together website (psst-bc.ca). PSST is a resource where school safety concerns can be reported confidentially by anyone in our school community.

Thank you for your continued support in keeping our schools and neighbourhoods safe!