Canyon Ridge High School’s recent vandalism in the past couple of years has cost taxpayers thousands, according to school administrators and custodial staff.
“[The public] pays for [vandalism]. Something big gets broken, then that comes out of the school budget which is the district budget which is basically supported by taxes,” said Mr. Scott Giauque, the assistant to the head custodian.
When asked about the “devious lick” trend where students stole and damaged school property for TikTok, Mr. Scott Thompson, the Interim Principal of CRHS, said, “The damages are pretty darn expensive. Over the summer, we replaced all of the bathroom stalls in the cafeteria area– which was thousands and thousands of dollars. Just the other day, I walked into the boys’ bathroom, and there was a faucet almost ripped out of the sink.”
“We did have one summer where somebody got into the building and trashed the rooms up in general. And I believe that got up into maybe the 2,500 – 3,000 dollar range,” Mr. Giauque explained.
Other damages that have occurred at Canyon Ridge include, “Windows or bricks broken… It’s not just in the bathrooms. We also get a lot of pen marks- People drawing everywhere,” Mr. Giauque added.
To deter vandals, the school is mainly relying on the security camera system. “The cameras are very good at finding things that happen,” Mr. Giauque said. “I would say that 95% of the vandalism they catch are people who are completely unaware that there are cameras watching.”
Recently, on October 8th, “We got egged. At 1:30 in the morning. We have an officer here, and he’s already found them” said Mr. Giauque.
Administrators hope that the vandalism at CRHS will decline. “We put up signs and are in and out of the bathrooms more often. We also talk about it quite often,” Mr Thompson said. “I think it has gotten better this year, but we’re only [at the beginning of] the school year.”
