Paly students face suspensions for egg fight

Why were the cops on the woods at Stanford? Didn’t they realise that this would move the egg fight somewhere else?

Paly parent – if you were Stanford and had to clean up this mess every year, wouldn’t you want to prevent it from happening?

“”blow of steam””

Go ahead condone this sort of irresponsible behavior, no wonder there so many new problems coming up.

The kids and parents of said kids should be held accountable.

Lighten up. Make the kids clean up the mess and get over it.
Sucking all the fun out of life seems to be the new tradition in so much of America.

Yikes,

This is why I don’t live in Palo Alto.

It’s tradition, it’s kids, why do we feel the need to raise this to the level of suspension. “Someone could loose an eye…” Don’t forget, “No running with scissors” , another classic. Parents, chill out, school officials, chill out, no wonder these kids are stressed out. Let them be kids, when my kids did this in Menlo Park, as it is tradition there to egg Freshman on one certain day each year. My son got caught, the cops called me, I went down, got my son and that was that. Cops told me they did the same thing when they went to MA. Hardly a criminal offense, just what teenagers do and I would rather have them get in trouble doing something like this than stealing cars. Or does egg throwing lead to car jacking, is it a gateway food?

Suspended? Let the punishment be for the kids to clean it up…while all the uptight “concerned” reside can stand back and watch and try to remember a time in their lives when hopefully they had a free spirit…

This tradition, in some form, has been around for decades. When my dad was a teenager at Paly in the 60s they would meet every Halloween and throw rotten food at each other. I know this has been a part of spirit week at Paly for at least ten years and used to be done after float building on Thursday night. Doing it on the Gunn campus is where they went seriously wrong this year.

sorry hit the submit button to soon, i’ve fixed the typos

Posted by resident, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, 0 minutes ago

I am not a parent but i am a tax payer, and i strongly object to a punishment that is

punnative and not educational by a school I help to pay for!

If some kids had frozen eggs or otherwise escalated the ritual fight let them be reprimanded, otherwise it is a harmless ritual in a wooded are where no clean up would be necessary.

These kids or so over managed…….A police ambush???? are you kidding me it sounds like an innocent “wild Rumpus” that i bet is mighty fun.

I believe an egg could neither put out an eye or hit a temple and result in death!!!!! however

injuries sustained in contact sports, such as football, could….shall we ban football and suspend the p[ayers?

While I can’t condone pranks that injure others or destroy school property, the egg war prank does not appear to present itself in the same light. The individuals involved chose to partake in this event. But the harsh punishment of suspension is unjust.

Why not let the seniors carry on a tradition for those that want to participate? We can’t expect our young students to be ALL work and NO play. If there is a mess at Gunn school, have the kids clean it up. But don’t inflict a suspension on our kids that could affect their chances at getting into college, place even more stress on them and resolve nothing in the process.

“they could be hit in the temple and killed.”

I’m going to submit that one to mythbusters!

I’ve heard the entire Egg Wars story from a trusted kid in my neighborhood, beginning to end. It seems to be pretty accurately reported in today’s Daily News. Details which were not fully reported may be:
1. With cops cruising around the two Stanford eucalyptus groves near Paly which are usually the sites for Egg Wars, the kids agreed on the big open field in Barron Park behind Gunn.
2. In the early going, Paly seniors held the high ground, juniors the low ground. One junior came with frozen eggs which the seniors considered unsportsmanlike; the juniors thought inspired.
3. Flashlights were seen which triggered the kids shouting ‘five-oh’ meaning ‘cops,’ everyone scattered, some dropping their eggs as they ran into the nearby neighborhoods.
4. It turned out no cops were in the area after all, so most of the earlier participants headed to this back field again, this time the juniors held the high ground.
5. Eggs flew.
6. Those hit with eggs needed to wash off so the outside water fountain at Gunn was used.
7. Many of the participants had parked their cars in the Gunn parking lot, so eggs were likely thrown in that area as well.

It sounds like a reasonable Egg Wars plan that got replaced at the last minute by a more-risky field plan which ultimately ended up on Gunn property. The kids who hung in there and took an egg or two were the ones washing up, and may be the ones who get fingered and take the fall for this Paly Spirit Week tradition.

I’m surprised at those who would support this heavy handed response. I can’t help wondering if there is some hypocrisy here given the permissive attitude of the schools of our generation.

These kids have a lot of growing up to do. Glad they’re someone elses kids and not mine.

I think an effective solution would be to have the parents of the kids involved fined for the cleanup costs, as well as a punitive fine. We would suddenly see more kids coming forward, because those few parents who would be on the line would get pissed off about it, and demand that the costs be shared among more parents.

Spriit Week is a good thing. However, it should be contained to campus. When I was in high school, we had a rotten goose eggs tossing contest out on the grass playing field. It was great fun. We also had a lottery to select three students to plant a pie into three (volunteer) teachers’ faces. Then there was the (volunteer) boys who dressed up as girl cheerleader (balloons in the right places), a girls ‘powderpuff’ tackle football game, with full gear, all followed by the greased pig chase. The boys always wanted a girl mud-wrestling contest or wet T-shirt contest, but it never was allowed (dang!).

I have been told that about 100 kids, and they are just kids, participated. Does the Paly admin mean to try to suspend every single kid who participated in this relatively harmless escapade? To be fair, it seems like it should be all or none. In fact, rather than bullying the kids into snitching on their friends, let’s make it easier and suspend the entire senior and junior classes. Come on Paly administrators, if you feel you must discipline the kids how about something more appropriate and constructive like a letter of apology to Gunn for the mess and 2 or 3 hours of community service?

The students picked a spot where they thought no damage would occur. They did not egg buildings or damage cars. I agree frozen eggs were a poor choice and thankfully no one was seriously hurt but I think the administration should allow kids to be kids and continue the tradition, designating a safe area that can be used each year and setting ground rules, i.e fresh raw eggs only, an organized clean up of the area afterwards by participants, and that it is restricted to Paly Jrs vs Snrs and not Paly vs Gunn as in earlier years.

Clarence,

Unfortunately, my kids, who are both Gunn students, witnessed eggs, eggshells, and egg cartons all over the Gunn campus yesterday, and not just in the neighboring field or parking lot. The participants should definitely pay the clean up bill, as well participate in community service, since some of the cleanup, especially on the athletic fields before practice, was done by Gunn students yesterday and not part of any custodial bill.

I drove into Gunn’s parking lot during lunch hour. There is a restoration services truck (water, mold, etc.) parked back there neaer the swimming pool. There is a good chance they did the cleaning up!
So much for getting the kids to clean up (not that most would own up to having participated in this incident)
Someone should find out the extent of damage at Gunn and whether professional cleaning services were indeed required because of that.

Male Violence: It wasn’t just boys. Girls participated too.

At the time of my earlier post I was not aware that buildings and the pool had been egged. I think it appropriate that Paly Jrs and Snrs put in several hours of community service time at Gunn.

Alas, much of the clean-up has already been handled by early morning walkers in Bol Park. Wednesday morning volunteers were carting large numbers of egg cartons as well as egg debris to nearby waste bins. Participants may wish to find another area to clean up after they wash down the worst of the mess. I also can’t forget that eggs are food and so many are hungry.

Let he who is without sin cast the first egg…

Bring back Cubberley will show you nerds how to party…

I hope some of you “egg war defenders” stop to think about how this egg war impacted the students, staff and faculty at Gunn. They are in mourning and then come to school to find it trashed. Come on, get some perspective, a heart and stop defending bad choices.

Really? Kids decide to have an egg fight and you are blaming the school for notifying the police? Really? And you are blaming the school for “forcing” the students to go to Gunn for the “war? Really? It’s not like people can make their own choices or know the difference between right and wrong. And it’s not like Gunn has been the the “ringer” as of late and find other people disrespecting their school. And really, are some of you seriously upset that students are getting suspended for something that they were told that they would get suspended for if they did it? Really? One of you actually recommended to the community to vote against an up-coming school bond. Really? What is clear to me is that most of you don’t have a clue. Really.

Anon.,

I do not support the Gunn egg war, and I think that these spoiled kids should be made to pay the consequences of their choices. However, a ‘spirit week’ is a good thing. You seem to think that these kids should be protesting Obama’s war in Afghanistan. I don’t think so, after all, their own parents, and the Paly staff, are mostly pro-Obama.

High school kids, spoiled or not, should be allowed some controlled release of tensions during Spirit Week. It should just be held on campus.

It’s best to target the punishment to the students involved and not punish the entire Paly School. Homecoming week, game and dance can be such a memory for students; don’t spoil that for those not involved in the egg event. I’d like to see school clean up and no attendance to any Homecoming activities for the guilty parties.

GBell, Palo Alto

In this time of empty food banks and families without food,why are our privileged students at Paly and Gunn completely unaware that some of their classmates’ families don’t have enough to fill their stomachs, no less throw away good food.

All these high achievers should be able to think of something better to do.

Cecelia, I don’t believe any Gunn students participated in this.

We have a teachable moment: Suppose school administrators decide that the over-spirited egg throwers require punishment. Should the punishment be proportional and constructive or arbitrary and damaging?

“U.S. history teacher David Rapaport was sympathetic to the protestors.” (from the Paly Voice article).

I wonder if Rapaport understands that relatively low paid servants will be required to clean up this mess, caused by his spoiled students He appears to have the ‘plantation’ mentality of the old slave masters. Why is he teaching our kids about U.S. history? Has he no shame?

It is extremely disrespectful to compared Mr. Rapaport’s comment to the mentality of slave masters. He was sympathetic to Paly students in terms of how the administration is dealing with the situation. While many people here commenting are citing Paly students as “spoiled” remember that it is not the fault of only themselves but also the parenting skills and environment they grew up in. So parents should also take a cold hard look at themselves and how they raised their children. Do not point all fingers at students. We aren’t the only reason why we have grown up to become the “spoiled brats” that we are.

Paly students did not originally intend to go to Gunn is understood.

I hope that it is also understood that the very action of throwing eggs on school grounds whether at Paly, Stanford, or Gunn is a “prank or other illegal activity” and constitutes vandalism.

I am very sorry that this has happened. For Gunn and its beautiful facilities, and for the Paly students who got carried away. I hope the students are not suspended as in today’s difficult college acceptance world that can be life-changing. Atonement, however, is important so that all can come to terms with this, learn, and move on.

Cancel the “Spirit Week” activities except the dance and the football game.

Don’t ruin kids’ college futures because they threw some eggs.

If it’s a matter of costing Gunn to clean up the campus, take the money out of the funds Paly uses to decorate for the dance.

And “Keith,” you’re overreacting. Remember when you were a student?

“And “Keith,” you’re overreacting. Remember when you were a student?”

Yep. I liked to have fun, too. However, I always expected to pay for the play. I never had a teacher, like Rapaport, who would come to my (our) defense, when we went over the line. We were always required to pay the price. Not so for the plantation children, apparently.

yeah they had to power spray for the whole day. i would have had my kid and his friends go and scrape the yolk of the track, pool deck, locker room, baseball turf, classroom doors and asphalt.

Keith, don’t confuse of misrepresent my post please. I am not pushing any particular political agenda, and maybe you could remember that Afghanistan is George Bush’s war. I don’t know how you can conflate and confuse a simple statement so badly unless that was your intent. If you want to have a discussion, fine. If you want to underhandedly attack my comment, then you should at least be honest about it.

When I was a Paly student I was able to “release my tension” as you want to express it in positive ways or certainly non-negative ways. This kind of phone tradition is how generations of people get hurt or killed every once in a while and it is a completely useless waste of time.

All this verbal “egg throwing” is making me dizzy. Clean it up and say your sorry! Kids are throwing themselves in front of trains for gods sake!

By some of the twisted logic here the police ruined Charles Manson’s future by catching him and putting him in prison. If this is what passes for critical thinking in this group I don’t think many of those that are making simple-minded statements like that have much of a future.

Anon,

“While my generation was out protesting the war in Viet Nam”

Those are your words, and you seem to be proud of them. You seem to be suggesting that high school kids should be out there protesting the current version, be it Bush or Obama. I say no…let the high school kids, however spoiled, have a little fun, but contain it within the campus.

If these spoiled kids protest about paying the price for their pranks, then paddle their (and their protective parents) butts. Just don’t expect them to take on anything serious, like protesting the Afghanistan war. They know nothing more about it than you did when Vietnam was going on.

Paly Senior,

No objection to having some fun, but shouldn’t someone in your student body get permission to use park or school grounds before holding such events? If someone asked Stanford for permission beforehand, the cops will have no reason to ask you to go elsewhere.

If Stanford refuses, I am pretty sure you can find other places and ask for permission to hold such event, as long as you clean up afterwards.

I think kids deserve to have some fun, but they also need to learn to act responsibly as well.

“Relax. This isn’t the elitist “rick folk” (sic) forcing janitors to do their bidding.”

Yes it is.

Paly Senior, If you were my daughter you’d be grounded until you figured out who was in the wrong. Tell your parents they’re hosting the event at their house next year. Stay away from Gunn. Gunn let Paly use their auditorium the night of the egg fight. Hope they don’t do that again.

A LOT OF PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND SOMETHING:

Half the issue is the precedent that was set by egg wars in past years. First of all, according a teacher that has taught at Paly for a very long time, these egg wars have been going on for at least the last 20 years. Whether or not its a good or bad event, its still a tradition. The biggest reason why there is such commotion over the heavy-handed ways of dealing with this problem is the precedent that was set in the past – punishment has been minimal in past years.

You can call us spoiled students if you want, but you can’t try to tell us to think better when we know that in past years everyone looks the other way towards this event. If we had known about what would happen afterward, I’m sure the entire upperclass of Paly would not have shown up. I also doubt this would be such a large and widely known tradition if the administration was always so anal about the situation. You all need to understand that the precedent that was set for this event is what contributes to the lack of better judgement by these students.

Also, according to a participant, there was an on-duty police officer stopping people and telling them that it is okay to throw eggs at other people as long as no property (buildings, houses, cars) is hit by the eggs. If you put that in perspective, you can see that the Paly administration is making a bigger deal about this than the damn police department…see a bit of a conflict here?

Another thing: I fully agree that anyone that defaced Gunn’s property should be punished. However, it should not be with suspensions. It is unreasonable to jeopardize the futures of students who participate in an ongoing tradition in which they assume they can get away with this given the precedent that was set in the past. Apparently, many people have been dealt with 5 day suspensions…that means throwing eggs is five times worse than carrying illegal drugs on campus, since such a violation carries a one-day suspension…that doesn’t make sense.

— Sen10rs —

First – this was a rude, irresponsible act on the part of the Paly Jr/Sr class.

Second – If they want to be taken seriously as authority figures, the Paly admin needs to think before it acts. The punishment should fit the crime at least in its severity. The shoot first, ask questions later approach is obviously not working with the Paly students. Its a smart group of kids, talk to them, not at them.

Third – Actually this should be first, the Paly Junior and Senior class owes all of Gunn a HUGE apology. Intentional or not, you guys trashed the school.

palo alto mom,

Have you ever been forced to clean up egg albumin from your house, after an egging? It ain’t easy, in fact, it is damn near impossible. Have you volunteered to help clean it up over at Gunn?

It is amazing how obtuse the masters are, when their kids cause trouble, and their slaves are expected to clean up the mess. Plantation life is great, if you own the plantation.

The perpetrators should be forced to clean it up.

Also, many of those protesting here obivously do not understand the requirements of civilization and the need for rules. Kick them out of school. Let’s save some tax money so they can be allowed to do what they want … if they can find somewhere else to do it.

The distorted pathetic world view evidenced by the comments of a few here show they just do not get it. I hope it is not to late for most Paly high-schoolers … or really anyone else of any age. It is stupid, costly, dangerous and anti-social to toss eggs around, whoever or whenever it was started.

I do agree the punishment should fit the crime. They or their parents should have to clean it up. Then you get the smart alec parents who will say unless everyone who participated in this can be caught and convicted in a court of law then nothing should be done. And we wonder why nothing works anymore these days?

As far as past years, these things have a way of escalating until tbey become problems. I never even heard of egg wars … what moronic idea anyway. I went to Paly before this nonsense. No one carried guns to school either, or went berserk. What is these student’s problem?

This also cannot be all Paly students, there are always some losers who want to pretend hide like terrorists among the normal population. Get rid of them, suspend, arrest, who cares?

The spoiled, egg throwing vandals should be forced to clean up the mess and be suspended. And the parents who defend them–disgraceful. No wonder this city is as it is.

Anon. of Crescent Park, great comments.

Ahhh the eggwars. Good times.

Egg Wars has been going on for years, and it will continue to go on.

Frozen eggs are unacceptable though, and that is where discipline makes sense. Making the participants clean up the mess also makes sense.

“Dangerous Frozen Eggs” Sounds like something one would see in the reject bin at Dr. Shockley’s Sperm Bank.

That is just fun to say and type. Seriously I knew a young woman from the Lodi area who had an eye put out because someone threw a water balloon out the car window—it smashed the car window she was riding in.

“if you were Stanford and had to clean up this mess every year, wouldn’t you want to prevent it from happening?”

If the people at Stanford had a brain (it would be lonesome) they would take advantage of this tradition. Provide free non frozen eggs, let the parents watch in the bleechers, take pictures and sell them, invite the Stanford Marching Band to join in the fun. At the same time they could return another old tradition long lost. Cars could be parked around Leland’s Tomb and drinking and doing the twist to car lights. ….but Noooooooooo.

Plus as Palo Alto feels “no recession should be wasted” they can easily hire the cheapest of labor to clean up the eggs. Contract it out to the guys overseeing the strawberry street vendors.

“As a parent I am disappointed in students thinking that throwing eggs in the first place is “harmless” unless they are also committed to cleaning up the mess.”

“committed” to cleaning up the mess? They spent four years in a big social pressure cooker, let ’em have some fun. My daughter did this egg fight a while back (“male violence”! more humor) and I have pictures of her right aftewards, she looked like she had a great time (and narrowly avoided the cops at Stanford). “committed to cleaning up the mess”….another fun thing to repeat until the idiocy of it sinks fully in. Yes she should have been committed to cleaning it up and I should be held accountable! This is too funny to believe people are saying this— who then expect to be taken seriously.

“First, it is a typical mindless American cultural thing to disrespect food by throwing it around.”

Hmmm they could get chimpanzee on it…throw feces! Fertilize the Farm while having fun. Return to evolutionary roots.

“George, show me any documentation where high school kids broke any glass during the Viet Nam war demonstrations?”

Ugh I was in high school during the Vietnam War. Glass breaking was among the more benign things done. The school insurance rates skyrocketed in the district. Eggs would have been a blessing.

But all this being said,

I remember my daughter (Paly) wearing a shirt showing a guy peeing on “Gunn”. I think the Paly-Gunn rivalry is a bit over the top at times. So when the egg war got inadvertently “moved” to Gunn perhaps the institution then became the target.

But people shouldn’t play the “suicide card” on this. On either side.

Also the school administration is damned if they do anything and damned if they do nothing. Still, like the Senior Prank with the car at Paly last year, criminal charges a bit over the top.

Anyway thanks for the chuckles all! I was glad to buy a ton of eggs for my daughter and her friends and will cherish the pictures of her for my ever.

Older Gunn grad

I would rather a high school be known for its students who have egg fights than for students who label as “selfish” kids from their own school who recently committed suicide.

Throwing egg’s in not harmless. All these students need should be punished and not with a slap on the wrist. This is wrong, very wrong and everyone from Palo Alto High, keeps trying to justify these action as nothing. Say you just remodeled your home and this happen to your property, you would be very upset.

let one egg, thrown from 20-30 yards or more, hit you in the face, then try to tell me this is harmless fun

Storm in a tea cup with egg on your face

The rituals at Yale and Harvard are much more traumatic, our kids can stipulate to that.

We need to focus upon the great positive qualities of our high schools and end this focus on the negative.

I agree with 2010 ayy
All of you need to get a lifetime supply of valium.
Gunn was not directly targeted in an act of PALY-Gunn rivalry.
For those of you (who attended paly or gunn in previous years) that think egg wars haven’t been going on for that long, the obvious response is that you were socially incomptent and that you probably didn’t know what was going on around you. I myself was a PALY grad and was involved in Egg Wars 15 years ago. Egg wars is a PALY tradition, and I get the feeling that Gunn is slightly jealous that they don’t have as much school spirit.

Granted, the decision to move Egg wars to the park behind Gunn was not a clever one. However, kids will be kids and some of you INSANE Gunn parents need to realize that severe punishment is not the way to teach kids to think rationally. There are many other approaches.

If you want more suicides keep up the way you act towards the kids that go to Gunn and Paly. It’s only a ticking time-bomb.

Say what you want to say, but I stand by my comments. It is only a matter of time before these kids are pushed over the ledge, either by their own choice or choices made for them by their hovering parents who demand success.

Who are you people?- please get a life and wake up
Gunn students are not jealous that Paly has a stupid tradition and we dont. Actually we do, uniting our school and having fun our own way without getting in trouble. I’m sorry but you know nothing about the suicides so you cannot write and talk about how you think you know the reasons so well like you knew those kids personally.
People need to stop connecting these punishments with suicide. Like actually, kids were not getting punished like this before so it is not the reason, so can we please have one conversation in this town without that coming up?

“Who are you people?”-
I think you should come watch our homecoming before you say we dont have as much spirit.

Paly Teacher — why are so many staff and administration members so negative towards the publications? They’re all award-winning publications and you’re just scared of them because they have every right to report WHATEVER they want as long as it follows journalism ethics. give voice some credit for the great job they did reporting immediately (paloaltoonline took much longer to report). it would be nice if the adults at the school would show some more pride about how good the student journalists at paly are… these students deserve some respect for all their hard work to report to the paly and palo alto communities while maintaining journalistic integrity.

also, someone mentioned earlier that they should just punish/suspend all paly juniors and seniors — that is the WORST idea i have ever heard. i am a senior and am about to send in my early decision application to my dream school and i had ZERO involvement with egg wars this year. i don’t want my future screwed up in any way and i think it is ridiculous that you even considered this to be a good course of action. suspending innocent students as a warning to the underclassmen and as a way to perpetrate a punishment is in no way ok.

It is more important that the kids involved understand why throwing eggs, especially frozen ones, at a public area where others deserve to use, is not just for fun. Suspension may not be the answer but all the kids should be pay for what they did, monetary or otherwise. Those who used frozen eggs should get extra punishment like community service which they have to clean up messes others made.

Now, to all the parents and adults who say that we should just let kids “have fun” because they are just “blowing off steam”. Please, do not make excuses. I have a few kids of my own, a high school student included. I will never make such excuse for behavior like this. Whether they are kids or not, they need to understand how their action affect others. You cannot just brush things off and pretent that their action is acceptable because they are kids. Admit that these kids made a mistake; help them understand that they made a mistake; teach them to be responsible in the future. When we start making excuses, we end up raising irresponsible adutls or worse yet, criminals. Let’s go through the following examples. If you still think it is okay to allow kids to have “fun” that is destructive, then I understand why our jails are over-crowding.

1) the three teenagers who started fires in garbage cans around PA with their latest incident that almost burned a school building at Hoover Elementary. They probably thought it was for fun. But do you??

2) the unknowns (probably kids) who broke windows at Briones Elementary. They probably thought it was for fun. But do you??

3) the 15+ kids who watched a 15-year old who got gang-raped and beaten at a Home Coming Dance in Richmond (not too far from here) and did nothing. They probably thought it was fun. But do you??

Have the kids do a sport, take karate, sing karaoke…plenty of ways to blow off steam.

It’s JUST an egg war. No one was seriously hurt, so don’t get your undies in a bunch. It’s a stupid punishment made by the stupid administration for a stupid tradition brought on by a bunch of stupid kids. Once again: NO ONE WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED, AND NOTHING WAS DAMAGED.

Eggs….are biodegradable. “OH MY GOSH, NO…WAY…!”

And can we PLEASE stop connecting the deaths of our friends with these COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT events?

I’m pretty sure there are IMPORTANT issues going on around California, yes? Yes.

Are you stupid, eggs are not biodegradable. I would like you to eat an egg a day later after its been on the ground. Nothing is bio, try drinking the chemical’s that say they are bio, after they have been filtered.

Good luck!!

Paly needs a form to help our kids know about what they did. Kids. No one stepped in to stop anything like the rape in Richmond. Don’t say it not the same. You didn’t see the damage!! If we Gunn did this, you would feel the same. That’s the problem, you paly person don’t care and give a &^%$.

Class of 75 Paly

At least we were smart back in the day used police scanners and didn’t get caught. Oh and the 24hr carwash in menlo park was a great thing when the egg fight went mobile. In retrospect the mobile part was much more dangerous (and criminal) than just facing off in the grove at Stanford. We did have enough sense not to freeze eggs, hit buildings or other non involved vehicles.

Stupid – yes but most of us grew up to be good members of society.

Other posters have commented that Paly should facilitate something like a water balloon fight between the juniors and seniors. However, I think that misses the point. Juniors and seniors in Palo Alto are faced with enormous expectations, and as a junior or senior, sometimes it feels like you are just trying to make everybody else happy–be it your friends, your parents, or your school. Many people at Paly are unhappy with the current administration because it seems like they are trying to control too many aspects of students’ lives and are making changes that they don’t think are necessary. While I don’t think that egg wars is a good tradition, I can understand why students want to get involved with something that the school, parents, or other authority figures don’t have any control over. The rest of a student’s life is so regulated, and egg wars is one way for a student to feel any sort of autonomy. I only wish that students could be part of something that wasn’t destructive. Unfortunately, this incident will only cause the Paly administration to become stricter.

Why are so many people turning this forum into a Paly Gunn rivalry?? Stop insulting each other!

“on campus” means every palo alto school campus, not just Palo Alto High School. Also, tons of your “facts” are wrong. my son did not attend but is good friends with someone who did and has served their suspension and will be back at school. The honesty shown by my sons friend was rewarded. it was not five days of suspension.

I say let the kids have their tradition, even if a few of them get hurt. Other cities have tomato fights, runnings of the bulls, etc; Palo Alto needs tradition, and this one sounds fine to me.

For those who haven’t been in Palo Alto for many decades, I can assure you that Palo Alto students are up to far, far, far less dangerous activity than was the case in the 70’s & 80’s – let’s not go too far in the other direction, as rights of passage are important to teenagers. Deprive them of those and *you’re* the problem.

Teenagers are not adults, even almost 18 year old teenagers, and have not matured enough to behave rationally.

Ask any of these teens beforehand if they thought what they were doing was in any way wrong and the answer would be no. Ask them now, and they will see that even though they had no wrong motives at the time, the outcome shows that it was indeed wrong. In other words, they are still immature, making immature decisions.

Being immature is not a criticism of teenagers, it is a fact of life. Teenagers are still children and their full development of rational thought will not come for a few more years. That said, it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be made to pay for putting to rights the outcome of their behavior, that is something they learn to do as toddlers. So working at the beautification day at Gunn is a great idea.

But, the point still stands. Teenagers are still not rational thinking adults. This was known in the past when the voting age was 21. Reducing the age to vote was done for political reasons due to the draft, not because it was proven that 18 year olds could behave as mature as 21 year olds.

For this reason, the drinking alcohol age is still 21.

So when we expect our teenagers who may actually have reached the age of 18 are adults what we mean is that they should act more mature than their physical bodies have arrived at. Coupled with the fact that most teens when they turn 18 are still in high school, haven’t earned any more than a few dollars spending money and have very few life experiences, our expectations for 18 year olds are much too much. My personal view is that we should increase the age for voting to 21, increase the driving age to at least 18, and start remembering ourselves how insecure, immature and irrational we were ourselves at that tender age.

I am not trying to excuse the behavior, but I am trying to remind us all that even though these kids knew the difference of right and wrong, it was not a black and white issue, rather a cloudy shade of gray.

Walked by dog over by the Gunn fields. Steam cleaners still cleaning up the walks and fences by the ball fields. About 5 guys on the job that I could see. They were individually steam and pressure washing each egg dropping.

A noun e mouse – you are a fine example of a father. I hope you have a lot of bail money saved up.

What is all this business of the kids needing an outlet to “blow off steam?” There is an entire week of sanctioned homecoming activites that would seem to serve that purpose. Or is vandalism the only outlet for these kids? Admit it, people, this is another example of privileged rich kids with too much time on their hands and inadequate supervision. Most of the my kids’ teenaged friends in Palo Alto are not expected to help out around the house at all, either because they have hired help for that “dirty work” or because the child is so pampered and coddled en route to a perfect SAT score that to ask the little darlings to empty the dishwasher or vacuum the living room would be unthinkable. Trust me, if your kids were a little more involved in family life, they would have much less time and inclination to participate in such asinine stunts. If they ever had to clean up their own messes (or yours), they would think twice before leaving a huge mess for someone else to clean up.