K15S OUR CLA$S. BOW DOWN 2015.
On the first day of school, faculty and students arrived to find toilet paper streaming the breezeway, graffiti painting the campus and glue jamming the door locks.
“Some of the vandalism was what I would say low impact,” Principal Brent Daniels said. “But locking the doors and the toilet paper was disruptive in that it forced a lot of our employees to move away from their primary responsibilities.”
The vandalism received immediate attention in order to ready the campus for the school day. The entire district maintenance and PHS janitorial staff were pulled away from their work to address the issue.
Maintenance technician Steve Lucas arrived at the school after colleagues notified him of the vandalism.
“I thought [the graffiti] was another troublesome waste of time for maintenance,” Lucas said. “I could [have been] installing hooks in a last minute project for some teachers before school.”
Starting around 7 a.m., the staff worked to remove the toilet paper and graffiti, as well clean out the door locks, which at the time prevented entrance into the 10s, 20s and 30s buildings.
Maintenance staff attempted to remove the glue with chemicals, picks and blowtorches, resulting in six destroyed lock cylinders, Lucas said. Including materials and installation, he estimates between $2,500 and $3,000 in damage costs.
“There’s a qualitative difference between what we would call high jinks and inflicting real property damage,” said Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Michael Brady. “And that’s what this is, this is real property damage.”
Because the damages totaled over $400, the vandalism constitutes as a felony, according to California Penal Code 594.
“Think about the hard work of people who break their backs all summer long to try to get school ready for the first day, how that work is dishonored, how disrespected it is,” Brady said. “And I don’t think if people really thought about that, before they did this stuff, that they would think it’s even remotely okay to do.”
Though the identity of the perpetrators is unclear, the graffiti has led people to believe the vandalism was carried out by members of the senior class.
Economics teacher Gabrielle Kashani said the incident went beyond being just a prank.
“This was destructive, mean-spirited and disrespectful to a lot of groups and to the students,” Kashani said. “My other concern is that these people are presenting that they are representing the seniors so it has a negative connotation for the whole class.”
The vandalism received mixed responses from the student body.
“It’s just [seniors] being silly and being seniors and doing whatever [they] want,” senior Noelle Lautt said. “I think they went a little bit overboard with the locks, but otherwise it’s totally fine. It’s kind of in good spirit.”
Sophomore Carly Bland said the prank, although not intentionally malicious, went too far.
“I feel like for the freshmen, they made it seem like that happens really often just because it was the first day,” Bland said. “It kind of showed a trashy image in a way.”
Kashani hopes future pranks will be done with more thought and care.
“Not destructive, but more creative and in the spirit of prank which is ‘I love my school and I love my classmates,’” she said. “Rather than ‘I want to destroy, be destructive.’”
Despite the damages, administrators and faculty would like to focus on using the incident as a teachable moment.
“It’s very important that we acknowledge our mistakes, but we don’t live in the past and we move forward,” Daniels said. “This is an excellent class. I’m not going to let one incident take away from the talent and compassion and caring this class has, that I know this class possesses.”
Note: The article was updated on August 28 from an earlier version posted on August 27 to clarify Lautt’s quote.
