Bathroom scrap left plenty of damage

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This article was published 10/08/2020 (2027 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

St. James taxpayers are on the hook after a boxing match that broke out in a bathroom at Sturgeon Heights Collegiate in early March resulted in $60,000 in damages, documents show.

On March 4, a flooding incident at the high school on Ness Avenue prompted all students and staff to temporarily evacuate the building. Rumours on social media soon spread about the closure occurring as a result of a student-run fight club.

An incident report filed to Manitoba Education, and which the Free Press obtained through Freedom of Information requests, states that a group of students gathered in the school’s upstairs bathroom to take a break from class. A bathroom vanity collapsed under the weight of three students who were sitting on it.

A video of the incident posted to video-sharing app TikTok shows the students perched on the sink watching two other teenage boys, one of whom was wearing red boxing gloves, punching each other. At least a dozen students are crowded in the bathroom, many of them filming the fight.

A clip shows the sink break off the wall and the witnesses fall, before cutting to another clip of the empty, flooded bathroom.

The formal report states two water lines broke and the students ran back to class, while two students started walking to the office to report the damage. Before they could report the incident, it adds, the fire alarm sounded and the school was evacuated for 20 minutes.

A note sent home to families that day states emergency personnel responded to the incident and cleared the building so students could resume class. Electricity was turned off to the affected area since water had flooded an electrical panel. Students whose rooms were in the area were moved to different classrooms while maintenance staff assessed the damage.

In addition to the broken sink and flooding, related damages include a collapsed ceiling and cracked ceiling. The total cost associated with the incident is $62,967.78, the St. James Assiniboia School Division said.

Superintendent Mike Wake said the price tag reflects how expensive it is to fix anything involving plumbing or electrical. Wake said he appreciated that “restitution practices” were put in place, since many of the students are required to conduct community service.

Division documents indicate nine students were given penalties ranging from community service to suspensions, depending on their level of involvement.

Wake added he is not aware of the existence of a student-run fight club, which was rumoured to be taking place in the bathroom on social media.

The student who posted the TikTok denied the existence of a formal club on Twitter. “It started out as a raid of the bathroom and 2 guys were boxing. We broke the sink and flooded the school. We didn’t organize a fight club we aren’t animals,” he wrote in a tweet posted in March.

Principal Ron Pelletier did not respond to a request for comment.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie