When Melanie Cheng saw a dead mouse in the personnel of the Graham Bruce Elementary School last year, the mother of three children was disgusted, and curiosity about the reach of the activity of rodents in other Vancouver schools.
Thanks to the documents obtained by CBC News, Cheng, the president of the Parent Advisory Council of the Vancouver District, now has the details of the more than 300 complaints about mice and rats registered last year by the staff of dozens of schools throughout the district.
From repeated complaints of a “smell of dead rodents” in the office in Champlain Heights elementary the past autumn to a “infestation of rats and mice” in the kitchen of the Killarney Sectary cafeteria this spring: the rodents were seen in more than 80 schools of the Vancouver School Board (VSB).
The teachers complained of “excrement and mouse peanking”, the students moved rooms to escape the distractions of living mice and the aroma of the dead, and in the staff of Nootka Elementary said they could not work in the rooms where the “smell is intoxicating.”
Cheng says he found the alarming details.
“I was completely surprised. I was surprised by some of the findings of this report. Some of the details. I was surprised to see that I was very widespread throughout Vancouver … if you were in a new building or an older building,” Cheng told CBC News.
“I am incredibly worried about reviewing this and the details about how learning environments for staff and students are affecting.”
‘Reality for residents and companies in Vancouver’
The School Board published a spreadsheet of the complaints along with dozens of pages that contain reports of hazard, emails and images of damage caused by mice and rats.
The documents cover the period of time between September 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025, which can explain why Cheng’s meeting in Graham Bruce (which occurred before those months) is not part of the data.
CBC News has turned the spreadsheet into a search database that readers can search by school or by keywords such as “smell”, “excrement” or “infestation”.
In a statement, the VSB said that the district spent $ 280,000 last year in pest control, which is part of the management of current facilities for 18 primary schools and 89 primaries that serve approximately 48,500 students.
A spokesman said that the annual budget goes up and down; The money includes salaries for two full -time employees who “work throughout the year in prevention of specific pests and responses” to address pests, including birds, ants, mapaches, mice and rats.
“The activity of rodents is not exclusive to schools, but unfortunately a reality for residents and Vancouver companies. The Vancouver School Board takes this problem seriously and has strong measures to reduce the presence of rodents in schools and their surroundings,” said the VSB.
“The district will continue to use best practices in prevention of pest control and work with school staff to minimize the impact of rodents on teaching and learning.”
‘Possible dead roder’
The documents highlight a perennial source of complaints for parents, students and teachers.
The stories about infestations in schools in other parts of the low continent have reached the headlines in the past, and last year, Surrey, which divided $ 480,000 for the control of pests between two suppliers, sought an external contractor to deal with pests that included bedbugs.
According to the documents obtained by CBC News, Gladstone Secondary had his own bedside problem last September when a student brought the insects to school: “Until now, two chairs (they have been) eliminated because they had activity,” the report said.
Cheng said that some of the complaints to the VSB stand out for her, in the chief of their mice sightings in the kitchen of the cafeteria in Britannia, where the staff prepares meals throughout the district as part of the hot lunch programs.
He also noted complaints of “possible dead rodent”, “mice stalking” and “smell of mouse” in Eric Hamber Secondary, a new seismic replacement building presented last year after an investment of $ 94 million by the province.
And in Oppenheimer Elementary, the staff caught four rats in less than a month in December in traps placed on the roof on the school library.
‘I think it is possible to keep rats out’
The public health professor at the University of BC, Kaylee Byers, has studied the physical and mental impact of rats populations. She says that people tend to have a less negative vision of mice, but live and work with any type of rodent ascends.
“The mice can also get sick,” he told CBC, citing the death of the wife of the late actor Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa, last February of what was determined that Hantavirus was transmitted by rodents.
“Rats and mice live with them, it is also a problem of environmental justice and social justice. Where are they more frequently? Who has the ability to manage them? Where are we investing resources as a society to help people who are at greater risk?”
Byers says that the constant presence of rodents in buildings where people work, study and eat can lead to a feeling of hopelessness. As a city, he says that Vancouver will probably be compared with rats free alberta, but says that should not prevent people from trying.
“Are we really thinking of a number of rats, or are we thinking about rats in our spaces?” She says.
“I think it is possible to keep rats outside the spaces where people are vulnerable to them. Then, in our homes and in our schools. And that is reduced to waste management. It is also reduced to exclusion … circling the perimeter of schools and discovering where rats and mice are entering.”
‘This room is quite chronic with mice problems’
An email exchange between one of the members of the VSB pest control personnel and the operations supervisor for the Board highlights the challenges facing staff to try to keep mice outside some classrooms.
Email includes five color photographs of a room full of boxes, cards, stuffed animals, books, supplies and what seems to be a box full of green onions covered with earth.
“This room is quite chronic with mice problems. I have been there out of every 5 years. The surrounding rooms have no problems with mice. Even the kitchen that is at 2 doors in the corridor does not have a mouse problem. The problems with this room are the disorder and the storage/storage/kitchen of food,” says the email.
“I cannot place glue or poison tables in this room because the walls and corners have 2 feet deep … so the combination of many spaces of concealment and food in the room is contributing to the problems of mice ongoing.”
Beyond internal complaints, Vancouver coastal health inspection reports show five high school coffee shops cited due to lack of compliance so far this year to show signs of rodent activity or not maintain facilities free of conditions that could house pests.
Cheng says that throwing money and resources to a seemingly impossible problem is not enough. She feels that independent supervision is needed to trace the progress of the Board’s attempts to control the presence of rodents in schools.
She says that the District Advisory Council has a seat as stakeholders in the Permanent Committee of the VSB facilities, but do not have a position in the Board’s Health and Safety Committee. She thinks that should change.
“We need transparency. What is being done? What are the protocols? There are particular areas of concern that would suggest that it should be improved when reviewing this,” he says.
“If we are going to be a place of learning for young children, if we are going to be a safe and inclusive space, then we must address these problems and make sure that no teacher has to enter a classroom worried about what they will find.”
