B.C. school district investigating ‘appalling mess’ students left at campsite

Students at two B.C. high schools are being called irresponsible and selfish because of the “appalling” mess they left behind after a grad trip.

A TikTok video showing the massive mess a group of grads left behind at a B.C. campsite has racked up hundreds of thousands of views and prompted an investigation by the school district.

Roughly a kilometre of the campsite at Jones Lake was left littered with bags full of garbage, tarps, cookware, camping chairs, storage totes and other debris last weekend – the mess documented online by a man who identifies himself as a caretaker of the site.

Warning: This video contains profanity

The video has amassed nearly 700,000 views since being posted, as well as thousands of comments – some of which purport to be from the students involved.

“We’re sorry but we had no room in our cars and it was pouring it’s not like we can just take all the garbage back to Seaquam Secondary,” one wrote.

“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.

The Delta School District, in a statement, said it took action after social media reports suggested that students from its high schools were “responsible for the appalling mess.”

The camping trips were neither organized nor sanctioned by the district. Nevertheless, the district has launched an investigation to determine who was responsible and has determined students from both Delta Secondary and Sequeam Secondary were involved.

“The aftermath of this incident is harmful not only to the campground but to the reputations of secondary schools and their grads of 2025,” a spokesperson for the district said.

“As a district, we are disappointed by this selfish and irresponsible behaviour, which does not reflect the values we strive to instill in students – respect for others, for the environment, and for our community.”

A few students did stay behind to help clean up, which the district commended.