The executive director of Essex County Youth Diversion says recent acts of vandalism highlights the need for parents and communities to intervene before minor offences become something more serious. Joanna Conrad says while these acts may seem small, they affect the greater community as a whole. The comments come after a playground at Alton C. Parker Park in Windsor was spray-painted with graffiti that included a racial slur. This latest incident follows a string of incidents over the last couple of months, which also saw the washrooms vandalized at Lanspeary Park and a children’s playground at Parent Park deliberately set on fire. While it’s not confirmed whether it was youths or adults who vandalized the parks, Conrad says of the youth referred to the Youth Diversion program over the past year, one in five of them are referred for vandalism-related offences like graffiti or damage to public property. Conrad says vandalism is often one of the first signs that a young person needs help and accountability. “When I look at our own numbers, for example, something that really stood out to me which is that over the past year, 21 per cent of the youth referred to Youth Diversion program were actually referred for vandalism-related offences. So that’s one in five, and that tells us that that’s not just an isolated incident. It’s a pattern, and it’s clearly telling us something.” She says parents have a critical role to play long before police become involved. “We have to stop treating vandalism as a harmless mischief or a rite of passage. A broken bench isn’t just a bench, right? Somebody paid for it. Another family was looking forward to using it. It’s public property, which means that it’s everybody’s property. And those are conversations that parents need to be having long before our children are teenagers.” Conrad says at the end of the day it comes down to accountability to ensure it doesn’t continue to happen. “Kids need to be held accountable for their actions, and parents, whether the police are involved or not, need to be able to say to their kids like, “Okay, so you did this. Now, what are you going to do to make it right?” Perhaps they need to go clean it up. Perhaps they need to go fix it. Perhaps there has to be some restitution, an apology at minimum, right?” Conrad adds that these incidents are often social media-led, where youth are seeking attention and approval online. Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens has also condemned the recent vandalism, saying those responsible should be held accountable because taxpayers ultimately pay the cost of repairing damaged public spaces. In February 2026, city council approved a $36-million plan to replace 36 aging playgrounds across the city. Dilkens stated that when vandalism continues to occur, it could mean other park replacements could be impacted in order to address the damages. With files from AM800’s The Kyle Horner Show
