Students from a recent unsanctioned grad celebration seems to be the culprits of a mess that stretched a full kilometre down the Jones Lake campsite south of Ruby Creek.
Jones Lake park warden Blaine Watson recorded the aftermath of the party in a three-minute TikTok video that has since surpassed 700,000 views.
"This is absolutely not right," Watson can be heard saying as he surveys garbage, tents, furniture and debris strewn everywhere. "About a kilometre of the beach looks like this. None of this was here before. Not like this. There's tents, there's garbage everywhere."
Witnesses appearing in Watson's video said that a few students stayed on the scene to pick up garbage.
"I made them grab a garbage bag, I made them clean up, and it still looks like this," one of them said. "It was worse than this before. It's terrible."
"There was a few of them that stayed behind and put some stuff in tarps and tried to clean up, and that was nice of them," said another. "It's not just one spot. It's all over."
Some of the comments on the video seemed to come from students from Delta School District 37.
"We're sorry, but we had no room in our cars and it was pouring," said one student. "It's not like we can just take all the garbage back to Seaquam Secondary."
"I am from Seaquam Secondary and it was NOT our fault the rain made it too hard to pick up our garbage, and we assumed you have people to clean it up," said another.
A spokesperson from SD37 told The Observer that district officials were aware that Delta students may have been responsible for the "appalling mess."
"Our preliminary investigation indicates that multiple groups were present at the campground, including students from Delta Secondary and Seaquam Secondary, as well as others not affiliated with the Delta School District," said director of communications Cathryn Tucker. " It is important to note that these camping trips were not school-sanctioned events, and no school staff were involved or present."
School administrators are investigating the unauthorized event to determine who may be responsible.
"The aftermath of this incident is harmful not only to the campground but to the reputations of secondary schools and their Grads of 2025," Tucker stated. "As a district, we are disappointed by this selfish and irresponsible behaviour, which does not reflect the values we strive to instill in students 鈥� respect for others, for the environment, and for our community."
Tucker said the district commends the efforts of students who stayed behind and tried to help the situation.
"We also recognize that the vast majority of students at both schools are just as upset by this incident as the broader community. It鈥檚 unfortunate that it reflects very badly on both school communities, regardless of direct involvement," she added.
Tucker urged parents and families to speak with children about the importance of behaving responsibly, especially in conditions that are not supervised.
