South Surrey parent cites concerns about portables and student safety during bathroom breaks

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Classrooms across B.C. will start filling up next week, including quite a few portables in many districts, and at least one local parent has some safety concerns surrounding bathroom breaks for younger students.

Jared Harman is a father of two students at busy Sunnyside Elementary in South Surrey and is worried about his nine-year-old son’s trips from the portables to the outside-access bathrooms at the main building.

“The primary concern I have — and I think a lot of parents have — is the safety of the kids. The school and neighbourhood are growing, and that’s fine, but none of those portables have washrooms,” says Harman. “The only washrooms they have access to are the two that are situated on the outside of the original school building, which I guess is fine, but they are not locked and there is no supervision there.”

He believes anyone can walk onto the school property and enter the washrooms undetected.

“It creates concerns for kids who are going to the washroom in the middle of the day. There are not enough teachers in the school to take the kids to the washroom so our son will have to walk across the lot, the playground or the field, and walk into an unsupervised washroom where anybody can be hanging out.”

Harman tells NEWS 1130 that it is unnerving for parents.

“You leave your kid there all day and know that he is potentially walking into a pretty bad situation at any given time.”

But Doug Strachan with the Surrey School District says it has always been the case — portables or not — that outdoor washrooms are unlocked and available during school hours.

“I’m not sure what the concern is. There is supervision provided on all the fields during recess, lunch and during pick-up after school. As far as getting back and forth between the school and portables for washrooms, that has always been the case in our school district and, I believe, any other that has portables.”

Strachan adds it is generally only the intermediate grades — the older elementary students — who use the portables, and that if there are specific safety concerns, they will be supervised.

“That’s part of the security of the school campus. Theoretically, someone who doesn’t belong at the school could walk across a field or enter the school without checking in at the office, but there are measures in place where any stranger on school property during regular hours is confronted and addressed. There are checks and balances to make sure people who shouldn’t be there are asked to leave.”

Strachan says the Surrey School District has a considerable amount of experience managing portables and the safety around them.

“This is nothing new for us. It has been part of what we do for the past 20 years.”

-With files from Lasia Kretzel