Officials at the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board are investigating a shocking case of vandalism at St. Anne's High School in Belle River, and say there are indications striking support staff may have put students up to it.
"Anecdotally, we have heard some reports coming back that is the case," says Spokesman Stephen Fields.
Photo submitted by anonymous listener.
Photos of feces smeared on a classroom window, a bag of feces on the floor and damage to a washroom surfaced on Twitter Monday.
Unifor Local 2458 represents clerical, office, technical, custodial and maintenance staff who hit the picket line Monday.
Local President Bruce Dickie is confident the board's investigation will exonerate members.
"I don't believe that it's going to show that any of our striking workers had anything to do with this at all," he says. "We have not encouraged anyone to misbehave."
"There's incidents in the schools that happen every day," says Dickie. "Anyone just has to talk to a custodian to find out the horror stories that go on on a daily basis in the schools when we are in there. We would never condone that type of behavior."
Fields won't say how the board became aware of the damage but says it has been cleaned.
"This is very disturbing for us," he says. "We've been sending out a lot of positive messaging to our students during morning announcements encouraging students to respect their schools. We think most of the people who are out there are not the type who would do that."
Fields says the board believes the incidents are isolated and involve few striking workers.
