St. Charles students petition school board over alleged drug use in school bathrooms

St. Charles School District 303 board members recently heard comments from St. Charles East High School students concerned about the use of drugs in their school’s bathrooms.

D-303 parent Jennifer Benjamin and three THRIVE Youth Coalition members spoke during public comment at the start of the July 29 Business Services Committee meeting. Ella Mruk, a recent St. Charles East High School graduate and member of THRIVE, told the board many students are afraid to use the bathrooms because of drug use and asked for increased education, improved awareness and policy changes around drugs in the district.

“For four years I attended St. Charles East High School and it was rare that I ever did go into the bathrooms. When I did have to go, I just chose not to because I was scared. I don’t think any student should ever have to go through that,” Mruk said. “I think it should be a safe space. Though I feel that St. Charles East is a wonderful space for students to learn, I think we can make it better by not making anyone scared to show up or be in the bathrooms or anywhere.”

THRIVE Parenting Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Kane County co-founded by Benjamin and District 303 board member Kate Bell. It supports parents of children with mental, emotional and behavioral issues. The THRIVE Youth Coalition is an initiative started this summer to encourage young people in Kane County to live drug-free. It has three youth co-presidents: Mruk and two St. Charles East High School students who also spoke at the meeting.

Benjamin said drugs such as marijuana, Adderall, Xanax and cocaine are being used and dealt in District 303 high school bathrooms.

“For four years I attended St. Charles East High School and it was rare that I ever did go into the bathrooms. When I did have to go, I just chose not to because I was scared. I don’t think any student should ever have to go through that,”

—  Ella Mruk

She told the board members she has two daughters, one who has graduated and one who is a senior at St. Charles East. She said her daughter deals with anxiety over going into the bathrooms at school because she can’t do so without being asked for drugs, being offered drugs or seeing someone use drugs.

“Our mission is to address and reduce substance abuse and improve mental health awareness in our area,” Benjamin said. “If the kids are high when they’re going to class, they aren’t learning anything.”

The THRIVE Youth Coalition started a “Let’s Take Back Our Bathrooms” petition this year to bring attention to the situation and give a physical representation of the number of students against it. The petition can be viewed online at chng.it/M6rVnSDHX2.

“When we have drugs in the bathroom, it poses a serious issue,” Mruk said. “We’re hoping that students will help and this petition will get drugs out of the school.”

Mruk has four younger siblings and said it is well-known in her family that there are certain bathrooms that are off-limits. She said it wasn’t until recently when she had to explain the rule to her younger brother who is going into his freshman year that she realized how big of an issue it is and that she didn’t want him dealing with it.

“The issue of not being able to go to the bathroom is very, very concerning,” Mruk said. “It’s a real danger. Even if [parents] think, ‘Oh, my kid won’t do that,’ they’re being offered or they’re being pressured and there’s a multitude of things that just aren’t being monitored.”

The coalition members also said inconsistent disciplinary measures were being enforced when students were caught with drugs. They said many times it would result in an in-school suspension or detention, which the students often sleep through.

They proposed an educational aspect to the consequences for students who get caught, including educational classes and sessions with counselors where the students could learn more about what drug use does to their bodies and how it affects the people around them.

The THRIVE Youth Coalition meets once a week and hosts youth events in the community. They work with other youth programs such as Operation Snowball and LEAD (Linking Efforts Against Drugs) to promote mental health advocacy and drug abuse awareness, prevention and support.

At the end of the meeting, board member Thomas Lentz suggested adding a review of the district’s disciplinary procedures relating to substance abuse to the agenda of a future meeting.

In a statement, District 303 Superintendent Paul Gordon thanked the members of the coalition for sharing their feedback with the board.

“We are aware of concerns regarding inappropriate use of school bathrooms by some high schoolers,” he said in the statement. “St. Charles East High School has implemented several interventions to address this problem and be assured they continually explore additional solutions to address the issues occurring in the bathrooms.”

THRIVE Parenting Project, Inc. was founded in May 2023 as a peer support organization for parents of children dealing with trauma. Bell said she and Benjamin met through a similar program when their children were facing adversity in school and after that program ended, they realized they wanted to continue to have that support so they founded THRIVE.

“We saw a need and we felt that there’s got to be ways to support kiddos in a welcoming, nonjudgmental environment that they can make authentic connections and have service-based opportunities to give back to their communities in ways that provide them leadership but also structured activities that have nothing to do with maladaptive behaviors that either are negative on the mental health side or that involve substance misuse,” Bell said.

Bell said her affiliation with THRIVE is in no way a conflict of interest with her duties as a member of the school board because there is no financial connection between the two entities.