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Vandalism in bathrooms leads to restrictions at CMR High School

Vandalism in bathrooms at CMR High School
CMR High School in Great Falls
Posted at 3:47 PM, Dec 14, 2021
and last updated 2021-12-15 10:48:23-05

GREAT FALLS — Several months ago, we reported on vandalism at a school in Billings, which were related to the "Devious Licks Challenge" videos being posted and shared on the Tik Tok and other social media apps. Now CMR High School in Great Falls is dealing with a similar situation - an outbreak of vandalism in the school bathrooms, which is causing further problems.

CMR officials announced last Friday that beginning on Tuesday, December 14, the second and third-floor bathrooms will be closed to most students due to the vandalism. The only people allowed to use the second and third-floor bathrooms will be staff members and special-needs students.

CMR posted on Facebook:

We are looking for CMR moms and dads to help us. Parent volunteers are required complete a background check and fill out a volunteer application at the district office. Once approved, we would like your assistance walking the halls, checking bathrooms for vandalism, and helping us remind students to stay on the first floor during lunches so classes are not disrupted.

You may have heard we have been struggling with vandalism all year in response to Snapchat and Tiktok challenges. It is costing us money to repair constant damages and negatively impacting our whole population, including our special needs students trying to use handicapped stalls that have been vandalized.

Morgan Lamey is a sophomore at CMR and says the situation at the school is frustrating, saying that students who are in class upstairs must walk down to the commons area bathrooms, leaving a much longer line than usual.

“It’s been going on a while, like the whole school year. There was a whole Tik Tok trend and nothing big was happening at CMR. The trend kind of started to die down, but the kids at my school weren’t ready for it to die down. The peeing on the toilet paper didn’t start until recently. I don’t know where they got that from but there were people like breaking a bunch of stuff in the bathrooms. Breaking the mirrors. And it’s really frustrating because we know it’s such a small group of students doing it but it’s affecting the whole school.”

Morgan added that the vandals have recently targeted handicap bathrooms, leading her to believe it’s a personal attack.

“I get wanting to be Tik Tok famous or whatever, but this isn’t how to do it. This isn’t harmless and it’s affecting the whole school and probably costing them a lot of money to fix the plumbing and make the handicap bathrooms accessible again.”

Vandalism in bathrooms at CMR High School
Vandalism in bathrooms at CMR High School

She said the atmosphere has been much different over the last few weeks and that things are much stricter in school. She told her mother Shauna when she got back from school one day and she had a very similar reaction to Morgan’s.

Shauna said, “From a parent’s point of view, it’s just frustrating. She came home, I don’t know, a couple months ago, and made a comment about these Tik Tok things going around and I was upset at that point. Now, it’s progressed to this point. I don’t blame the school for doing what they’re doing because what other measures can they take? To fix these things, that money must come out of somewhere, ok? You don’t budget for Tik Tok vandalism."

The school has recruited parents and community members to volunteer and watch the bathrooms.

Shauna added she was one of the first parents to volunteer and hopes more parents step up to help put an end to the vandalism.

CMR is still looking for parents and community members to volunteer; you can visit the district office to fill out an application, and you must pass a background check.

Several months ago, we reported on vandalism at a school in Billings, which were related to the "Devious Licks Challenge" videos being posted and shared on the Tik Tok social media app.