The Town of Sylvan Lake has had to temporarily shut down their Monday night drop-in programs thanks to some community youths who were abusing the program's access to local schools. 

The Town and the multi-campus facility that houses Ecole Mother Teresa Catholic School and Ecole Fox Run School have had a long-standing agreement where user groups can use the gyms at the schools for drop-in sports on Monday nights.

However, because the programs allowed access to the facilities, teens were coming into the schools, skipping the drop-in programs and causing mischief. 

Sean Durkin, Recreation and Culture Manager for Sylvan Lake said it's unfortunate that they've had to close the programs for now because there were still many people utilizing the facility for the intended purposes. 

"We want to create programs, not have to take anything away," he said. "We really do want to bring it back, but we’re trying to find a better way to staff the program. There’s a lot of people who use the program in an appropriate fashion, but we want to make it better for the community."

He said concerns from parents have been raised regarding bullying and harassment, while multiple offenses of vandalism have been found in the facilities. 

"We’ve had a lot of vandalism and harassment of staff. We’ve brought in municipal enforcement and extra staff and it hasn’t seemed to rectify the situation. We’ve had some major issues at the schools, with major vandalism and harassment with staff, so we made the call [Tuesday] morning to shut it down. It’s not forever, though. We’re going to re-evaluate and see how we can manage it more appropriately," Durkin said. 

He said it's frustrating for the users who have been enjoying the facility, but the program needs to ensure safety of residents and staff if it is to continue. 

"I totally understand some of the frustration. We’ve had a lot of support from a lot of the parents saying that we’ve made the right call and that is greatly appreciated. We don’t take these decisions lightly. This is something we want for the betterment of the community, we want more programs, we want kids to be able to go out and have fun in the community, but we want those things to happen in a safe environment," Durkin said. 

Updates will be provided from the Town when they are able to determine how to move the program forward safely.