- Bay District Schools and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office are offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone guilty of causing felony-level vandalism at the schools, according to a BDS press release.
- Those found guilty of these crimes will be required to pay full restitution for the costs associated with repairing the damage.
- Recent damage has included graffiti, soap dispensers being ripped off the walls (sometimes on the same day they were installed), broken faucets, smashed toilets and broken doors.
PANAMA CITY — Bay County educators and law enforcement have teamed up to combat a recent wave of local school bathroom vandalism triggered by a nationally-viral TikTok challenge.
According to a Thursday Bay District Schools press release, BDS and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office are offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone guilty of causing felony-level vandalism at the schools. Additionally, those found guilty of these crimes will be required to pay full restitution for the costs associated with repairing the damage.
Recent damage has included graffiti, soap dispensers being ripped off the walls (sometimes on the same day they were installed), broken faucets, smashed toilets and broken doors — all encouraged by the challenge on TikTok, a popular social media application.
Superintendent Bill Husfelt said in the press release that the damage is not only expensive, but negatively impacts the students at every school.
“We can’t keep the bathrooms in good working order with this level of destruction,” he said. “And we know that’s frustrating for students.”
Husfelt noted that BDS has significantly increased the number of cameras on campuses and is doing everything possible to ensure that hall monitors and others are supervising the bathrooms.
But still the vandalism continues, he said.
“We’re not going to put up with this,” Husfelt said. “I want the handful of students who are doing this to know that we will exhaust every resource possible to find them, to press charges against them and to ensure they pay full restitution.”
Husfelt noted that students who are committing acts of vandalism will likely be placed at alternative schools to ensure their destructive behavior is not permitted to continue to impact “the 99% of students who behave appropriately and do everything we ask them to do.”
Husfelt said BDS is grateful for the continued support of the sheriff’s office and Crime Stoppers and he’s confident the community and local parents and guardians will do all they can to ensure students stop this destructive behavior.