t was hard to understand.
Why would someone kill Marshmallow, a cute and gentle pet hamster, and leave a classroom in disarray?
Sitting on the grass, some fidgeting, some bowing their heads, more than 40 Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School students, guided by their teachers, struggled to find reason in an unfathomable act of cruelty and brutality.
While the children in Susan Coons' sixth grade class sat patiently on the grass Tuesday afternoon, Marshmallow's body was laid in a red pencil box and buried near a tree behind the principal's office.
Marshmallow's owner, sixth-grader Anna-Rose Sakai, who brought the hamster to the class less than two months earlier, pushed dirt into the hole. She then carefully arranged flowers on top.
"She was so sweet, I can't believe anyone would want to kill her," Sakai said later. When she heard the news on Monday, she cried "all day," she said.
Whoever killed Marshmallow also tortured her. A teacher discovered Marshmallow's eviscerated body hanging on the classroom's doorknob Monday morning.
Stunned educators arranged the ceremony, hoping to turn the hamster's weekend slaying into a "teachable moment."
During the memorial, students in Coons' class recited poems and essays dedicated to Marshmallow, with one saying that she was "just growing up to be big and furry."
"Hopefully, she will have a great time in hamster heaven with all the other sweet, nice or fluffy hamsters," sixth grader J.P. Blachard read.
Others shared their memories of the class pet, many saying she never, ever bit anyone.
"When I tried to hold her, she tried to climb up my jacket sleeve," Emily Glide said with a small chuckle.
"She was never in a bad mood," classmate Melissa Price said.
The vandals, whomever they were, did not harm the class' two other hamsters, Susie Q and Shirley Temple. Both attended the memorial, poking their heads out of students' hands.
After the service, students munched on carrots -- one of Marshmallow's favorite snacks.
"It was moving and very age appropriate," Principal Joseph di Silvo said of the afternoon memorial service.
Meanwhile, custodians were busy shampooing the classroom's carpet so students could move back in on Wednesday. The entire room, located near the school's basketball courts and overlooking Mitchell Park, was covered in a fine gray ash chemical from a fire extinguisher the vandals sprayed, di Silvo said. A DVD player had to be replaced, and a classroom computer was taken by police for evidence.
School officials did not believe students were to blame, but investigators -- still piecing together clues on Tuesday - were hopeful a critical tip would come from a student.
"We don't have solid leads at this point, but we're hoping that some students are able to help us as time goes on," Palo Alto Police Captain Torin Fisher said.
Graffiti taunted police (referred to as "piggies") to catch them. The numbers "420" were also marked on the property -- most likely, a reference to marijuana. A 24-ounce malt liquor can was also found near the classroom.
To do what they did, the vandal (or vandals) "had to be inebriated," di Salvo said. To enter the room, they presumably climbed through an open window, he said.
Sixth grader Mitchell Mayman heard that whoever was responsible meant to frighten the students.
"They didn't scare me," Mayman said, scrunching up his face, his eyes squinting, "they just got me angry."
Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com
E-mail a friend a link to this story.
