Middle & High School Students No Longer Permitted on Kelowna Campus

OCSU is finally seeing some positive movement on the now multi-year struggle with secondary students on campus. In January, our board of directors wrote a letter to the institution's administration, the Kelowna Secondary School (KSS) administrators, KSS PAC, and School District 23 demanding better accountability and action to combat the literal hundreds of complaints OC students have lodged over the issue. We received an email back from the KSS Principal informing us to “speak and work with OC admin” about the issue. Recently, after a group of high school students started a fire in one of the washrooms on campus, new signage and firmer enforcement of visitation rules have been rolled out, and a marked reduction in secondary students lingering on campus has been noted. The institution did not publicly acknowledge the nuisance of high schoolers on the Kelowna campus, but did take small steps to mitigate some of these challenges after an entire building was evacuated due to the fire.

Finally, after multiple years of frustration, complaints, and public discourse, a letter was sent out to KSS parents on March 13 stating that “beginning March 30, no middle and high school students will be permitted inside any OC building on our Kelowna campus during the school day unless they are accompanied by an adult, or enrolled in a dual-enrolment program such as dual credit, sampler and gateway programs.”