Concerns about sex, drug use in high school restrooms raised by Peninsula School Board

Bathrooms — and what goes on in them — were a significant topic at the Peninsula School Board meeting Sept. 23.

Halfway through a discussion of security at the district’s two high schools, school board members raised concerns about sex, drug use, theft, and self-harm in school restrooms that prompted a new district committee that will address the issue.

At one point the board discussed whether to commission an outside security study, like one that was performed in 2014, but decided to wait for a report from Superintendent Krestin Bahr, who said she was going to start a “Student-Superintendent Advisory Committee — I just made that up this minute.”

Caroline Gregory, one of the two new student representatives on the board, said: “Honestly, for me, there have been times I’ve felt uneasy going into the bathroom” at Gig Harbor High School.

“I’ve gone to the bathroom and seen people hitting dab pens, which is THC, which is marijuana,” she said. “I have not personally seen two kids having intercourse but I have heard stories.”

Gregory said she tries to wait until after school to use the restrooms, and she avoids certain ones “where those things usually happen.”

School Board President David Olson related an anecdote about students having sex in the bathroom. He said he had heard it from a parent.

“I have recently heard stories of students walking into a bathroom in the high school and students are having sex there — yelling at the student to get the ‘f’ out of there so they can have sex,” Olson said.

He did not name the high school or say when the incident occurred. He referred an email requesting clarification to Bahr, who said the incidents discussed were a “compilation over time.”

Board member Chuck West said he, too, had heard “from a Gig Harbor student that she was afraid to go in the bathrooms” at the high school. And board member Natalie Wimberly said she had heard “stories of self-harm in the bathrooms.”

‘Devious licks’

In the first weeks of school at GHHS a TikTok video circulated showing a student ripping a soap dispenser off a bathroom wall. It turned out, as Gregory explained to others on the board, to be part of a TikTok challenge named “devious licks.”

“It’s a trend on social media where students try and steal school property and try to one-up each other,” she explained. “Things like projector remotes, batteries from mouses. I don’t know why it’s a thing, but it is, and it’s really dumb.”

Annalise Parker, the student rep from Peninsula High School, said her choir teacher has had to lock the choir room because of all the small electronic items in it that could become “devious licks” targets. Students have to knock for admission.

“There will always be challenges when you are dealing with high school students,” said Peninsula High School principal Joe Potts, who added that “Ninety percent of our students are doing exactly what we want them to do.”

“If you really want to know what’s going on, talk to your students,” said Michelle Suder, principal at Gig Harbor High School.

School Resource Officers

The bathroom discussion grew out of a conversation among the board, deputy superintendent Dan Gregory and the two high school principals, about whether School Resource Officers should be posted at the schools. The officers, who are Pierce County sheriff’s deputies, were withdrawn when the schools were closed during the pandemic and have not been replaced.

“We know there are some hiccups with the School Resource Officer program countywide right now,” Gregory said, but when the program was in place it was “quite effective, very helpful.” There was a single deputy based at Peninsula High School who could also visit other schools at random or as needed, Gregory said. The deputy was usually present at high-traffic times, before and after school and at lunchtime.

“He was not there just to put out fires,” Gregory said. “The idea is to create relationships, so that kids feel safe and comfortable.”

An inquiry to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department about the status of the program was not immediately answered.

Walking the hallways

The district still has three full-time safety officers, unarmed district employees, who try to be a visible presence at lunchtimes, before and after school, and often patrol the restrooms, Gregory said. They are augmented by school administrators.

“Our administrators are not sitting at their desks,” he said. “They are out walking the hallways, talking to students, being visible.”

At Gig Harbor, Potts said, “Each part of the campus has an administrator placed strategically. Safety officers are also placed strategically. And they monitor the bathrooms.”

Other business

In other business during the Sept. 23 meeting, the school board:

▪ Approved, on second reading, a “board operating protocol” which limits board members’ interactions with the public and the media and channels most inquiries through the superintendent.

▪ Approved a six-year Capitol Facilities Plan that projects a 13.6 percent increase in enrollment by 2027 — to 9,419 students — based on the addition of an estimated 1,750 new homes in the district by that time. Pending construction plans include upgrades to two middle schools, expansion of the high schools, and an upgrade to the bus maintenance building. Most of the financing for these projects will continue to come from the $198 million bond issue passed in 2019.

▪ Approved a three-year contract with the Peninsula employees’ union bus drivers’ unit that increases the base bus driver salary to $24 an hour. A driver with 10 years experience would earn $26.76, with 21 years of experience would earn $29.32 and with 30 years or more would earn $31.28. The contract, approved by the bus drivers Sept. 17, extends to August 2024.

Salaries for substitute drivers would depend on hours driven, beginning with $21.68 for up to 359 hours; $22.89 for between 366-719 hours, and $23.85 for 720 hours or more.

The six-year capital facilities plan is available online here.

The tentative agreement with the bus drivers is posted onliine here

This story was originally published September 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.