CCTV catches what kids doing in playground—one act leaves teacher horrified

A Kansas neighborhood received a shocking letter from the organizers of a local community space, warning of consequences if local children weren’t controlled.

Kate Pepper and her husband, Charles, have been behind the local community center, The Art Park, in their neighborhood for almost 20 years.

She described it to Newsweek as a “family-friendly educational campus” complete with their art school, a dance and yoga studio, music studios, a daycare, therapist, church and hair salon, with each “mom and pop” businesses owned by different individuals.

“It’s a beautiful facility with gardens, a shallow koi pond, a labyrinth and a huge shaded playground,” she told Newsweek. “It’s nice, too, because it’s kind of tucked away so the people that are there are supposed to be there.”

Arts and crafts is beneficial for young children, giving them the skills of problem solving, independent thought and critical thinking, according to Early Years Resources.

Art activities also requires children to use the small muscles in their hands, developing their dexterity and fine motor skills, along with encouraging their creativity and imagination.

Things have taken a turn in the last few weeks, however, as Pepper was forced to send a letter out to the neighborhood warning that they could be forced to lock up the playground after business hours for a shocking reason.

The letter, shared to Reddit’s r/mildlyinfuriating sub on June 12 by user u/stuntbikejake, pleaded for help from the local community after the Art Park owners had noticed “destructive behavior” happening for weeks.

Spotted on their surveillance cameras, as well as flagged as a concern by some neighbors, Pepper wrote that unaccompanied young children were playing at the playground after hours.

They clarified that children are welcome at the playground, but must be supervised and “act appropriately”—before laying bare some of the behavior they had witnessed.

This included kids riding bicycles in the parking lot with cars pulling in and out, destroying student artwork drying outside, and throwing toys from the playground into the koi fish pond.

Most shocking of all, however, was “children defecating and burying the feces on our playground where toddlers play, [and] running around without pants on.”

Reddit users were shocked by the post, currently standing at close to 10,000 upvotes, as one commenter wrote: “I’m thinking these might be wild children raised in the wilderness by a pack of wild dogs.”

“What parent is teaching their kids to just run around bare ass naked and just drop loads wherever you happen to be standing?,” another asked, as one advised the owners to call the police for the “completely unacceptable behavior.”

“I would lock it up immediately,” another wrote. “The liability costs of an unsupervised kid having an accident could be enormous.”

Pepper told Newsweek: “The Reddit readers were most upset about the playground pooping, but what really got under my skin was the destruction of someone else’s artwork. That’s what prompted the letter.”

The letters had the intended outcome, however, as they identified the children involved in the destruction of the artwork, aged between six and eight, and had a meeting with their appropriate adults.

“The pastor of the church came to the meeting as well, because he has a thriving youth group where he mentors young men in particular and helps them become better people,” she said. “He does fundraisers for them for college, helps them get jobs and become productive members of society.”

As for the toilet-related issues by some children, she said it’s “most likely that they had go badly and couldn’t make it home, or didn’t want to stop playing to go home and use the facilities.

“Yes, it’s disgusting, but so many of the other things were so much more annoying and took so much more time to rectify,” she said, adding that she was “really glad” the parents took the time to meet them.

The Art Park, she said, is “a really special place, and we love what we’ve created.”