The new public washrooms at Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park installed less than five years ago sustained thousands of dollars of damage earlier this month after being targeted by vandals.
Resident Sinead Walsh said she encountered Town staff cleaning up a mess on November 5 when she tried to use the washroom. She says the worker explained vandals had put fireworks in the toilet again.
Sinead Walsh
Fireworks set off in Town toilets
Copycat vandals struck Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park washrooms apparently inspired by a destructive anti-social TikTok challenge.
Sinead Walsh
Toilet trashed again
A public toilet at Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park was apparently destroyed by fireworks in November.
In an email statement, Chris Mark, the Town's Director of Parks and Open Space, confirmed two instances of vandalism this month at the Bronte Waterfront Park washrooms. He said walls were marked with graffiti, damage to a toilet, stall doors, and a toilet paper dispenser.
The destruction appears to be part of the "devious lick" challenge in September in the United States. It involved young people filming themselves tampering with soap dispensers, urinals and toilets in school washrooms and posting evidence of their misdeeds to the video-sharing platform TikTok. Numerous school expulsions and arrests resulted, and by September 18, US media outlets were reporting that TikTok had shut down the hashtag and removed associated videos.
In Canada, there were media reports of school washroom vandalism in Regina, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and closer to home, in Burlington, Paris, Delhi, and Huron County. A concerned school board in Montreal pre-emptively sent letters home to parents urging them to speak to kids about responsible social media consumption.
Mark says the local incidents have been reported to the Halton Regional Police, and security measures are being implemented. Commenting on a neighbourhood Facebook group thread on the subject, Ward 1 Councillor Sean O'Meara said, "We are working on surveillance cameras. Cameras in public around washrooms are tricky due to privacy laws, but I, like you, am tired of these young hoodlums causing this damage. I'll follow up as soon as legal says what we can do."
A spokesperson for Halton Regional Police Service said that other than the November 2 and November 4 instances at Bronte Harbour, no other reports of major vandalism to public washrooms have been reported to police. Residents are encouraged to report any acts of vandalism they witness to the HRPS using their non-emergency line (905-825-4747).
