Spirit week at Paly this week, it may be egg wars again :(

They have had some on campus food fights from what I have heard but that was chocolate milk (I think).

I'm sure half the students at our local high schools know who the perps are. Kids, please tell the police or at least the school principal who did it. Parents, get the information from your kids and tell the police. This is a criminal issue. If people treat it like a joke, then it will keep happening, perhaps next time with spray paint instead of eggs.

"If people treat it like a joke"

Methinks more like a yolk?

People: Kids, egg fight, public park, let them be kids for gosh sakes!

I would say this is more like littering than vandalism. It just kids having fun and being kids. It can always be cleaned up and it's kinda like free compost for the park! Eggshells are great for garden soil!

"Parents, get the information from your kids and tell the police. This is a criminal issue."

Whoa, whoa. Calm down, Kojak. I guess you don't remember high school at all? Or maybe you were the boring goody two-shoes who never did anything fun?

Let kids be kids.

"If people treat it like a joke, then it will keep happening, perhaps next time with spray paint instead of eggs."

These students are throwing eggs at each other. I doubt any students ran around writing illicit messages on walls with eggshells and egg yolks. I am sorry but kids will be kids and I am wholeheartedly against using scare tactics and bringing in the police. Although property might have been "egged", what makes Palo Alto such a great place is that we can easily afford to clean up after our kids.

I fully back Alex's goody-two-shoes comment

Knowing Palo Alto, they were probably Faberge eggs.

Perhaps the PALY kids could destroy property in their part of town -- say at Rinconada Park? Why come to South Palo Alto and muck up our parks?

How entitled to say that "we can at least pay to clean up after our kids".

I am all for kids relieving stress and having fun, but eggs do cause damage and it's expensive to clean up. Let them have a water balloon fight, or something else that isn't wasteful and destructive -- and have them do it in their own neighborhood -- not on Stanford Campus, Gunn HS, or Mitchell Park. AND, imagine this, have them take responsibility for their "fun" and clean it up!

South Palo Alto (and I do live in South Palo Alto) has more than its share of self-righteous parents who like to show off their narrow-mindedness over here.

Egg Wars is between Gunn and Paly students, so it's an unfair advantage for Gunn to have the fight in their territory. Not really, but at least they chose a park, not a track field which is expensive to clean.

Surely, people know who was involved. This is not a school issue since it occurred outside of school hours.

This is an obvious conspiracy performed by the Palo Alto Police Department in order to increase the totalitarianism that is enveloping the United States

Totalitarian parents swarming all over a not-a-big-deal issue here.

I feel bad for the kids of the person who wrote this article. We need to let our kids be kids and stop being so contemptuous.

The people in the comments are obviously making fun of this clearly fake story. This angers me greatly that Palo Alto Online would waste their time writing an opinionated article about a fictional event, accusing innocent students of vandalism. Read the Constitution. All their lies shall become transparent.

Thursday night of Spirit Week, traditionally the night for the "egg war" between the Juniors and Seniors.

Sorry, should have said Thursday night of Spirit Week, traditionally the night for the "egg war" between the PALY Juniors and Seniors.

Not a fake story. I saw the mess in the park. I also saw the city employees cleaning the mess up early this morning. I saw the egg splattered play structure. A big mess. Why didn't the participants come back and clean up after themselves? I'm sure the City of PA paid for several employees to be out there for a few hours cleaning up egg cartons, egg shells, slimy messes. Find a different place to play next time--how about your own backyard or on your own street?

You guys all reek im sure it was a jolly old time at mitchell park. Im proud to say myu child participated!

I sure hope this tradition is still alive when my kids get to high school. Sounds like a blast!

Eggcellent points! This is no yolk. We must scramble the officers and get these kids. It's no time to be over-easy!

sorry i couldn't make it guys, i was hard at work for my stats test. 2-0-1-4, we will win this spirit war!

Why not have the fun and games at Paly high school? Can't mess up your own playpen? I liked the suggestion that the party move to one of the participant's neighborhoods. I'm sure it will be welcomed and the neighbors will be glad to scrape up the whole mess, all the while smiling at how kids will be kids.

I have seen it, and if not cleaned up soon it will smell awful. But, hey, at least it was OUTDOORS, not in some school cafeteria.

Alex and Palo Parent seem to think that being a kid involves destructive, dangerous, thoughtless and vandalizing activity - instead of the more reasonable view that occasionally being a kid can intersect with any of the above if the kid is not well parented or does not develop good judgement. I guess we know what kind of homes these ideas comes from, maybe some people don't want to grow up. I wonder if they would think it is so fun if it was their property that was damaged or disrespected?

Egg fights have so many things wrong with them that the idea that they contain some speck of "fun" is very wrong if you bother to think about it. Egg on finished surfaces can act like an acid in some case causing expensive and hard to fix damage. Of course, if the damage is expensive and the result is simply an eyesore, no one spends the money to fix it and it stays there for people to see it for years. Being hit with an egg can cause serious injury as well. Just walking through a place where some punks have decided to show and leave evidence of their contempt for rules and public property is not healthy or fun residents of Palo Alto - I sure do not like it. Whoever thinks that is fun is not someone I want to hang with or would be excited to know is in my neighborhood. What's next, graffiti fun?

Further, whoever mindlessly uses the "they were just having fun argument" is not someone whose opinion or logic I can respect, and is probably not much of a neighbor or citizen. Do they use the same argument when their dog poops in their neighbor's yard ... just let Fido be a dog, he's just having fun.

When did this kind of behavior and turning the tables on decency and propriety become "cool", or take on the pretense of being "cool"? I don't think many people like any more than I do. If this is not something you would do in your neighbor's yard, or your own yard, maybe next to your own car, then it's not something that should be done, and thoughtless anti-social excuses are not something that should be paid attention to.

ID'em, Find'em, Fine'em and make'm clean it up and pay for it.

I posted the following (part of a longer discussion) on Jun/2012 here - Web Link
"...
May I suggest to try to imagine, for example, a hypothetical situation: What would be consequences faced by Minorities - African American/Hispanic/Tongan, from EPA, studying in Palo Alto High if they were the ones caught damaging Gunn new track throwing eggs, part of a "group activity tradition"?
Would anyone argue that consequences were too harsh?"

@Moderator - I do hope that my comment above conforms with the current rules of civility, the law of the land. my comment above remained intact when i posted. This comment remained intact when i posted.
And here's again, to rules of civility from another time - Web Link

I'm 100% confused why people act surprised by this...this literally happens every single year. Every Thursday of spirit has ALWAYS been egg wars for as long as I can remember. This will continue to happen as well. People should be somewhat happy it was at an open park mostly composed of grass. If these kids are pushed away next year, they will just go somewhere else possibly worse for egg fights. Mark your calendar. Next one is 365 days away.

Lotta class Paly. If the administration of that school had even an ounce of class or nerve they would have had those self centered over privileged brats over at the park cleaning it up this evening while the football game was on.

How about these classless clueless brats throw up on their own campus next year? Maybe on their football field? After all no big deal - right. Just fun and games, and who does it really hurt, right? What, how dare we would suggest that such a 'no big deal' fun and games actually be held in in THEIR yard???

Hey Paly Administration, maybe assign a little homework project for Paly Students - How exactly does one clean up eggs out of grass, off of benches, out of sands, and dirt paths, and play areas where people walk and play and live? What kind of damage does dried egg do? What kind of smell and insects does it attract when not cleaned up right away?

[Portion removed.]

What?! Why does Paly keep getting blamed? Gunn students are there too! Again, this was not during school hours and not on campus - schools are exonerated.

Hey Mom, This has been Paly's MO for years. Just within the last 4 years, they were caught doing the egging on Gunn's campus and several of them got suspensions on their school records which they begged and pleaded to have removed so they wouldn't be seen on their college admissions. All very easy to cry about punishment when you don't have a brain in your head to prevent you from doing the stupid self absorbed actions in the first place.

So you know who was there huh? So have you contacted the police yet? You're a witness to a crime. If you cover it up you're liable as well.

"What?! Why does Paly keep getting blamed?"

Because this is a PALY event for their Homecoming/Spirit Week. This has nothing to do with Gunn students. The only reason Gunn is mentioned in regard to the PALY egg wars is because several years ago when Stanford requested that PALY students stop having egg wars on Stanford grounds they decided to conduct their egg war on the Gunn campus. No Gunn students participated. Gunn students arrived to school the following morning to hundreds of broken eggs in the new pool area, the new track, the score boards, the baseball field, classroom windows as well as the walking paths in the fields beyond the campus. "Stress release" for some and stressful to those having to clean up the mess.

Here's one of the articles from 2009. Web Link

Turns out Skelly 'investigated' the Paly administration for handing out consequences to the little darlings who participated in causing over $2000 in damage at Gunn, who got handed suspensions, that likely would have resulted in black marks on their college applications. (but hey, vandalism - its all fun and games, right??) And surprise surprise, here it comes again - because no one with a backbone wants to to be too harsh on those fun loving little darlings.

The egg wars is a Paly tradition between Paly Juniors and Seniors. Gunn hasn't been part of it in the past. Mom, why would you say all of a sudden it involves Gunn? Maybe because it just too embarrassing for Paly parent to bear that their little darlings are caught looking like a bunch of classless punks, and you're looking around for someone else to drag down with them.

Thank you Parent for the link to 2009, and here's to 2011 - Web Link

I am asking, again:
...
May I suggest to try to imagine, for example, a hypothetical situation: What would be consequences faced by Minorities - African American/Hispanic/Tongan, from EPA, studying in Palo Alto High if they were the ones caught damaging Gunn's new track throwing eggs, part of a "group activity tradition"?
Would anyone have argued that the consequences were too harsh?"

Crescent Park Anon, [Portion removed.] Aren't you glad they were doing that instead of possibly drinking or smoking somewhere? It's really not the worst thing that could happen..

"I'll tell you what, how about next year, the residents of south palo alto have a friendly little egging on the Paly football field, and leave them holding the bag for cleanup, and those clever Paly kids might finally get a clue."

Good luck and have fun. However, there is a big difference between a large open grass field and a high school running track.

MY BAD. I mistakenly thought it was a war between Gunn and Paly. I still say the schools have no responsibility though; it's a PAPD issue.

Just as a few parents want to defend indecent exposure, or blame victims of sexual assault, some parents want to defend vandalism, all of it as long as the majority of the participating children are from middle to upper class households, and of the right color. If my Latino child tried any of this, with ten of his friends and family, he wouldn't be able to get through one carton of eggs without PAPD swooping in.

This is nothing like streaking.

Streaking harms nobody, it is just exhibitionism by adolescents and can hardly be called the same as destruction of property or hurting someone.

Now, instead of eggs, why don't they use rotten tomatoes, or other soft fruits. If they did that, a hosing down and nobody would care too much.

It is just that eggs are so hard to clean up if not impossible. I don't like water balloons too for the same reason. But rotten tomatoes, who cares.

This is not a destructive, criminal activity in their minds. They do need to have some fun in their lives. We as adult society have taken away so much of the fun that we probably had in years gone by. Life is now antiseptic, safe and clean.

Please Paly kids, use something other than eggs next year and enjoy your fun.

This happens every year on the Thursday night of Spirit Week. If the Palo Alto police wanted to catch them, they would patrol the parks on Thursday evening. I suspect a cop or two at Safeway, Piazzas and the 7-11 standing near the eggs would be a deterrent also.

The egg war of a few years ago didn't happen at Gunn intentionally , the kids were in the field next to Gunn and got carried away. I believe the kids that were caught doing the egging paid for the clean up (they weren't allowed to do it because a lot needed to be professionally cleaned up). This used to occur on Stanford property under the eucalyptus trees and Stanford threatened to arrest the kids. Paly admin can't do anything about it unless they know who the kids are.

Turn UP!

It was a school issue in 2009 because the egg war took place on a PAUSD campus (Gunn High School) and caused damage to the school site.

Truly, it's a Palo Alto Parent issue where the vocal minority support this kind of behavior either by defending it as a rite of passage or by turning a blind eye to it.

It is what this town has become.

They have been doing this for years. Simple solution, just get them to clean it up. I am sure if you ask for volunteers at school you would get together a work party to clean up the mess. And yes it is a school issue.

To Palo alto resident, "The egg war of a few years ago didn't happen at Gunn intentionally , the kids were in the field next to Gunn and got carried away."

I guess you did not read the Facebook postings from the PALY students the evening before the event that called it the "PALY vs Gunn" egg war even though no Gunn students were invited. These students chose to pelt Gunn HS as their opponent. It is funny how defense comes from the parents who were not involved. PALY students met in the Gunn parking lot. Most of the damage was done on campus, very little was done in the field behind Gunn. Students posted things like wait until they get to school in the morning and see what we have done; there was all kinds of bragging until someone spread the word to take down postings and quickly the day after students removed their postings (and bragging). BTW, the track was several months old and close to a hundred eggs hit the track and the scoreboard. I know because I counted them. Sometimes it is better to admit that the kids screwed up and that what they did was inappropriate. I am not saying to haul them off to jail but it is not right to defend inappropriate behavior.

Having had my front door egged this summer, and thus understanding how hard it is to clean up dried egg and shell, I am sympathetic only to the city employees cleaning up the mess. I'm in agreement with Midtown above: let those kids "being kids" also clean up the mess they make.

Palo Alto Resident; "Paly admin can't do anything about it unless they know who the kids are."

Bull.

Paly adminstration holds all the cards. The first time they cancel and forfeit a football game, or cancel a homecoming dance, this will stop real fast. (In fact, there's a dance tonite...) Lets see if Paly just goes blithely along as if nothing happened (because nothing happened to THEIR stuff), or if we see the administrators do anything of any substance to take control of their bratty punks.

Maybe you meant Paly admin can't to anything about it - because they are spineless and don't give a crap.

Parent of Barron Park - "big difference between a grass field and a high school running track" WHY? First of all, the egging wasn't on an open field, it was all over the playground, and in grass, and on paths, in area's the people use. Whether thats someone's grass field where they play soccer, or whether thats a kiddie park, or a track, its not the Paly students to decide whether it has value. Second of all, all the fields in palo alto are well used and in high demand - they have high value. So - why is there a big difference and who gets to say? - because PALY values their track too much to deface it and doesn't have money to fix it if they ruin it - but clearly the valued resources that others rely on are lesser? Frankly, what if we as a community were to say - go ahead and tear out the ruined track and football field rather than pay to replace it because we don't value it - let them go without and we're not going to pay to clean it up. So we can have an argument of the "value" of one guys stuff versus the other guys stuff... But the bottom line its Egg Throwing Entity A doesn't get to decide the value (or lack of value) of Entity B's stuff.

I agree that if this is harmless, these young people should do it on their own campus, at their parents' homes, in Paly neighborhoods and parks. The fact that they choose each year to egg other places clearly indicated that they know what they are doing. I'm very glad my children go to Gunn. It has no traditions I know of that are based on fouling somebody else's place. I'm all for fun and harmless pranks, but I will never forget the faces on the Gunn students when they found their campus trashed. It was mean spirited and showed the Paly students who participated to be poorly raised.

I'm not a fan of the egg wars, but lighten up. What I think is worse are the dog owners who let their dogs run loose at the Mitchell Park and JLS fields, leaving behind their excrement (hopefully the dogs'). This happens every week of the year, not just Spirit Week. And remember, Midtown is also a Paly neighborhood.

> Lamar T, a resident of Barron Park
> Crescent Park Anon, [Portion removed.] Aren't you glad they were doing that instead of possibly drinking or smoking somewhere? It's really not the worst thing that could happen.

Hey Lamar ... sorry I missed your "portion removed", but did you mean that to be comedic? So we should only worry about the worst thing that can happen - that's a good one.

Better smoking and drinking than drunk driving too, eh. Better drunk driving than rape. Better rape than murder. Better murder than terrorism - so we better only react to one thing, the worst thing that can exist, and let all the other "fun-lover" have their fun? Were you throwing eggs when you should have been in critical thinking class?

Parent: But the bottom line its Egg Throwing Entity A doesn't get to decide the value (or lack of value) of Entity B's stuff.

Bingo!

@ Parent from Charleston Gardens - I'm not condoning the event, but should a school of almost 2000 kids be penalized for the actions of at most 5% of the students? Canceling a football game would penalize the team - many who are hoping to get scholarships and probably none of them were involved (the night before a game they have practice, then dinner together, then homework). Canceling the homecoming dance would do nothing, hardly any one attends, mostly frosh and soph students and this is just juniors and seniors.

If anyone really wants to stop this and penalize or stop the participants, get some parents to patrol all the PA parks on Thursday night of Spirit Week. It happens EVERY year on the same night...

CrescentParkAnon., I agree with Lamar. The comparisons you are making are extremely off. Of course we don't want this stuff to happen but nobody was physically harmed to the point of any of your comparisons. I was not there, but I feel that you need to chill out because I believe the tradition is not targeting a place, but just two grades of students targeting each other for fun. If they didn't want to be there, they wouldn't. For all the people who think they were trying to ruin the park, you are very off. Why would they do it at other places before and then all of a sudden move to that place you ask? It's because the other places were probably full of police. Next year it probably will be in North Palo Alto, who knows? So stop complaining and just move on unless any of your personal belongings were ruined. It is now in the hands of the police and they will deal with it.

> nobody was physically harmed to the point of any of your comparisons.

That's not the criterion. If repair and clean up work has to be done, someone is damaged. It doesn't have to be physical.

Not every application of the term "tradition" to is an actual tradition.

Yeah, it's all fun till someone gets maimed or hurt. Like someone else said ... if you think that's OK, have it in your house, or around your car, or make an offer to clean up and pay for the damages yourself. Take the risk and unpleasantness on your own Mr. Chill. I don't pay taxes so you and your homies can do damage to the city.

> It is now in the hands of the police and they will deal with it.

The Police serve the public, that is - me, all Palo Alto, and as such they are supposed to listen to us and enforce the law per community standards. You really have no point.

Ha! I completely agree with Truedy: "What I think is worse are the dog owners who let their dogs run loose at the Mitchell Park and JLS fields, leaving behind their excrement. . . This happens every week of the year, not just Spirit Week. And remember, Midtown is also a Paly neighborhood."

Palo Alto dog owners are consistently allowing their dogs to trespass onto private property and schoolgrounds so they can leave feces. Stratford has it right - they have gates that don't allow people onto their campus.

My children have stepped in dog feces three times at Jordan and Duveneck. This is a much bigger ongoing problem to be upset about than one day of egg wars.

And blaming the entire school for the acts of a few is irrational.

Agreed,

Where is the outrage over the ongoing dog, and dog poop problem? However, a once a year, traditional high school prank sends all the local goody-two-shoes into a frenzy. Give everybody a break, will you?

My son, a senior at Paly, does not participate in any of this, as he has no interest in it. However, as a family we understand the need for the local high school kids to let off some steam every once in a while. This is harmless.

No wonder our kids are overly stressed with so many completely uptight parents, or people without kids, in this town.

Take up the fight against dog poop, and leave the kids alone. These annual tirades are getting old.

Palo Alto Resident - "should a school of almost 2000 kids be penalized for the actions of at most 5% of the students?" Yep, that's exactly what I'm saying. I guarantee that peer pressure will prevent this in the future if the penalty was uncomfortable enough, and had enough of a ripple effect to cause discomfort. That is EXACTLY how the Paly administration takes control of the situation. If the out of control wittle kiddies don't have enough self control to behave like citizens of the community once they are all worked up over spirit week, then the stimulus needs to be removed.

Pretty sure there would be names available to the police by Friday morning after a Thursday night egging, if there was any chance that the Friday night football game was at risk.

And if the dance is too meaningless, then fine, they should find something that has an impact.

Why the hell should PARENTS all over the city be required to stay up all night to control other people's bratty children? That's ludicrous when the solution is simple, painless and gets right to the heart of the matter? The heart of the matter being a group of entitled and misbehaved children not understanding spirit week and appropriate boundaries of that event?

"If anyone really wants to stop this and penalize or stop the participants, get some parents to patrol all the PA parks"

Then we'll expect to see a long list of Paly parents signed up to patrol all the palo alto fields, parks and schools during Paly's spirit week in the future?

Midowner - lets have an experiment then in this HARMLESS prank. Buy yourself 3-4 dozen eggs. At about midnight go out and throw them all over your house, your lawn, your landscaping, your sidewalks, your car, , etc. Wait until about 9:00am the next day before you start the cleanup. Report back on how harmless it was. We'll look forward to your report.

A half century ago, fortunate to pass an exam, I arrived at one of New York City's specialized high schools, Stuyvesant, in lower Manhattan, replete with rich history, memorable teachers and students, and casts of characters.

These elements intersected early at pep rallies prior to the big game with arch football rival DeWitt Clinton of the Bronx. First, at the mandated in-school, auditorium rally for newcomers led by coach and players, and then by students on a memorable day before the game.

It was a Friday, and as the 3,000 students flowed out of the subway stairwells to the old East 15th Street, 1907 building before school opened, a rally was under way. Clinton dummies were raised and burned; students carried on in merry song and chant and climbed and pranced from cars and atop light poles. Reporters arrived, attracted by the ruckus. Then, a new rally chant emerged, "Union Square! Union Square!" and a healthy section of the student body headed off through and over traffic to spread the word at the nearby historic Manhattan intersection. Eventually, the school doors opened, and not completely sure what to say or do, I headed in.

Matters returned to normalcy in the morning, but shortly after lunch, a curt message came over public address system, piped into each classroom, that school was closing early, and we should all go home.

Shedding most colleagues on my third subway connection, a buddy and I began to notice unusual underground sights and sounds: adults congregating and quietly talking, hushed words, whose fragments sounded crazy. Finally I went over to speak to someone. The President had been shot and killed.

The national tragedy consumed all, saving my alma matter from embarrassment in the press. The big game, of course, was cancelled, but in addition, neither it nor the pep rallies returned during my high school years.

Egg wars and other excesses of Palo Alto school spirit may not equal those of my alma matter back in that day, but they are neither positive nor harmless. And they will eventually be deposed, either via higher levels of consciousness, positive outlets, or unforeseen circumstances.

"I guarantee that peer pressure will prevent this in the future if the penalty was uncomfortable enough"

Dear Parent of Charleston Gardens, please do everyone a favor by making sure to stop attempting to voice your completely irrelevant and invalid opinion. Pitting Paly students against one another and condoning peer pressure is ludicrous. Furthermore, you calling Paly students bratty and in turn insulting any and all of my parenting efforts is genuinely disrespectful and immature. I altogether do not condone any form of vandalism, however, as far as the damage done to the park, I do not believe that it is a matter worthy of such lengthy and disparaging tirades. As for the issue of park-choosing, I do not see why there is such strong sentiment about sending the Paly kids back into their own territory. I am a resident of midtown and I have a son and daughter who play soccer at Mitchell every other day, however, no one is seeing me endlessly complaining about the annual and predictable event of egg wars. I consider myself to be part of Paly and, at the same time, Mitchell park is in my part of Palo Alto. I place my full confidence in the wonderful people that will do the necessary clean-up work. In conclusion, I do not see egg wars to be incredibly unacceptable and worthy of punishment.

@ Parent of Charleston Gardens

Where any home or cars hit by any eggs last Thursday night? I don't think so. I did not read anything to that effect.

Would I care if my lawn or landscaping were hit by eggs? You've got to be kidding. Of course not. Lawns are not THAT precious. I'd rather have kids have a good time once a year than never have any egg on my lawn.

As a matter of fact, eggs are biodegradable, and, if anything, they would fertilize my landscaping. So, not, I would not care about eggs on my lawn. It would take someone really anal to care about it IMO.

[Post removed.]

or the smashing of eggs is the end of reproduction represented by the egg. too many kids, not enough room,smashed eggs say'' no more reproducing kids like egg cartons and be unobtrusive on the ecology ,live for life not just live to have kids, represented by the ''egg''. which came first ,chicken or egg?...someone said ''both!!". the chicken is how an egg reproduces itself!!

We really live in the Palo Alto bubble. Other school districts need to worry about extreme bullying, weapons, drugs, sex, teen pregnancies, continued vandalism throughout the year. Sure, bullying, drugs, sex do exist here, but very low levels. I have two children at Paly and I can tell you that the majority of students are good, nice kids. Even the Egg Wars participants are not evil kids. These people ranting here ought to get their priorities straight. I think the ranters aren't familiar with Palo Alto student and how they compare to other teenagers in American public schools. And yes, we are public schools; those who have private school expectations need to be reminded of that.

We sure are fortunate to have such passionate guardians of public order. What will happen next? Naked, streaking egg throwers leading to the final unraveling of civil society. Please protectors, continue to save Palo Alto from the corrupting influences of the chaotic outside world.

You guys are all slaves. PALY can't do anything if they didn't know who was there. They would never cancel a HC or Football game either because the kids at EGG WARS are not typically the same kids busting their butts in football practice or organizing a school dance. This isn't even something PALY should concern itself with at all, considering the fact that PALY is a public school and the incident did not occur during school hours OR on PAUSD/school property. The only time PALY should intervene and discipline kids for something that occured outside of school is when it affects the learning environment AT school, which this didn't do.

Palo Alto has no real problems so we overreact to little thing like this

You guys all met there for a loki?

Sandy it's people like you that make me wonder if anyone has their priorities straight anymore

When my son was in high school (at Paly), our house got egged. It was such a mess, with all that albumin, a natural glue. I was very upset. My husband settled me down. He had my son start to clean it up, even though he had not done it. He told him, "you know who did it, and if you want help, then call them up to help you". Initially, my son resisted, because he did not want to be a snitch. After about three hours of heavy scrubbing, he made the call. They came over and helped him.

We did not get egged again.

Husbands and fathers are very important.

Miguel, certainly you miss the point of the school wide punishment. Lets say for example it was you who were in on it, and you have nothing to do with the football team, no interest or involvement in the dance, or the noon time pep rallies, or the band, or in any way connected to the activities around homecoming. It was just you and about 100 of your closest likeminded trouble making friends going rogue.

And the school, for example, went ahead and cancelled those well liked activities, as punishment to the whole school.

What do you think the likelihood would be that you and/or few to many of those 100 participants would fly under the radar on that - get a pass from the whole school (and believe me, they KNOW who it was.) Or might the little band of idiots get some heat from the 100 or so on the football team, the 100 or so in the band, the hundreds of people that actually were furious at you and your idiot friends for messing it up for everyone. How likely is it do you think that to preserve the proceedings on behalf of the 1900 or so that were not involved, that those 100 or so that were involved would be be brought forward to bear the heat. Or do ALL of those 1900 just happily go on allowing the selfish few to mess it up for everyone?

Let me ask you this Miguel, ever been on a competitive team? or in the army? What do you think happens when Mr. Miguel decides he's a slacker and shows up late, or decides to walk instead of run, or decides to proceed in any way by his own personal set of rules? Punishment is handed out to the whole team. And THEN who do you think straightens out the house and gets Mr. M with the program?

SAHM, not evil, selfish self centered brats. And apparently we know where it comes from, when other peoples stuff is of no concern, not even in the least. Some people's parents.

No, it doesn't always work that way. In fact hardly ever. Frankly those scenarios are from the movies. Nice drama but hardly ever happens.

If one of my shipmates was late or had an honor code violation, believe me he was the one pulling extra duty - not my company. And if one of my athletes showed up to practice late, he did extra laps, stayed late with the freshmen to clean up or was benched.

It's the juniors and seniors who are the problem, not the entire school. Two choices can be presented...the two classes organize and volunteer to work pay for the clean up as a "community service" project or the school funds that the two classes were planning to use towards the spring formal will be redirected towards the park clean up. ..no spring formal will be allowed. A more targeted consequence.

Wow, there is some misdirected energy here. Some people really need to worry about themselves because they have no control over others. If one becomes angered over how others act, he'll never be happy. Energy needs to be directed toward the positives in life instead.

It's interesting that having "fun" for some people involves destruction of property or inflicting pain on someone. The lack of imagination about how to have fun is mindboggling. One reads about drunken or drugged celebrities trashing hotel rooms.
These kids either have no functioning parents, or no functioning fathers. Or the parents do not take responsibility to raise decent human beings.
A day or two in jail for some of these creeps might be educational. And their parents should pay for the cleanup. I sure don't want to.

Oops, Midtowner, you forgot to post your address so everyone who needs to have a little innocent fun can bring their eggs over.

> Midtowner, you forgot to post your address so everyone who needs to have a little innocent fun can bring their eggs over.

UH, YAH, really ... waiting!

SALMONELLA POISONING?
Isn't there a risk of people getting sick from the Salmonella that's in some eggs? From the kids participating in this custom to the parents washing their clothes, from the workers cleaning up and the visitors to the park to the bikers and bike repairmen handling the tires that have gone through the eggs mess. I do hope a doctor will weigh in and disrecommend the not so innocent fun.

Frankly I think the Paly kids should hold this in North Palo Alto and preferebly at Paly! Keep your battles on your own turf, but keep them! Let kids be kids and get off the high horses. They shoudl get the egg throwers together with the streakers and have a go of it.
When did the adults in Palo Alto become such righteous, tight pantied wimps?
Let them chuck the eggs and then drag them out to clean it up.

Seems like a reasonable solution would be for thr Paly Admin to send over a clean-up crew the next day. It doesn't have to be the same kids, nor serve as a disincentive. Just being a responsible institution.

[Post removed.]

Let's be crystal clear: this so-called "tradition" (like the streaking) only involves a small sub-section of the student body. Yes, they sound pretty entitled to me.
Many of us associated or previously associated with PALY did/do not agree with this AT ALL and our family members were/are not involved.
Penalizing the entire student body or a class/grade is outrageous; penalize the rule or lawbreakers. Take personal responsibility for your actions and don't drag innocent/uninvolved students and families into all this nonsense.

such a simple solution really...all the people posting here who think this is a harmless prank or an entitled letting off steam, pl. provide your addresses. next year the kids who need to let off steam, can have their egg wars at those addresses....everyone happy!

As said before, next year use rotten tomatoes (or other soft fruit).

It isn't the battle that's the problem it is the eggs. Choose something easier to clean up (not water balloons), and the problem practically doesn't exist.

Eggs or rotten tomatoes, the problems are very similar, both can be destructive.

This is Palo Alto, there are super-entitled rich kids ... let them by NERF guns and have NERF gun wars wherever they want. Or water guns ... even better.

These are just dumbass kids who because of the stupid media they watch have to inject nastiness, violence, anti-social behavior, vandalism and generational angst into their acting out drama! You can see it here in some of the posts ... well, maybe you cannot because they mostly get deleted.

These are kids that can do damage that choose to do damage and laugh in your faces about it, because they do not get enough parental attention and have had no boundaries set for them. All hail the new generation! Boooooo!

[ I am talking about the kids involved in this kind of "rebellious behavior", ie egg wars, rebels without a cause or a brain, not the majority of kids who are more clear about things ]

Almost all of these posts are adults arguing with other adults. Much of what has been written, regardless of which "side" is being supportive, is so nasty, petty, etc. and hardly setting any kind of good example for our kids to look up too. There is no dividing line through the city, and yet some posters suggest the students involved should stick to "their" side of P.A. There is no "my" side of town vs. "your" side of town. All are welcome in "my" neighborhood. This conversation has gone on long enough; it's time for people to grow up!!

resident, Simple way to get the conversatino to go away. Lets see the Paly administration take care of some consequences so this doesn't continue to happen year after year on some random Palo Alto field or park, which is never Paly's. The "YOUR SIDE" of palo alto is simply referring to having the balls to keep it on their own school campus - if its such harmless good fun and no problem to clean up, pretty sure the Paly administration will welcome it there. heck maybe they can even sell tickets to watch all the good fun on the football field as a homecoming event. I'm sure based on all the parent defending the practice as harmless good clean fun, that this will be NO PROBLEM whatsoever.

People are angry that it keeps happening, and apparently no grownups are showing up to put a stop to it by applying sufficient pressure, because those in charge just really don't have any skin in the game because it simply isn't impacting them - at Paly.

"..empty egg cartons littering the landscape." They couldn't even toss the cartons? If they find these selfish, inconsiderate vandals, then they make them clean up that park as punishment, plus some other public places. I am disgusted by the waste of food too. Maybe they should stock shelves at a food bank as well.

sad that this story gets more comments and, what seems to be, more outrage over what has happened than the truly sad story about two parents dying under the wheels of a drunk driver, leaving three children without their parents! Speaks volumes, doesn't it.

sad on so many levels said:
> Speaks volumes, doesn't it.

Not really, apples and oranges.

@sad on so many levels, Yeah, because the amount of comments on one specific website has something to do with the amount of outrage...

It is a fact that the number of comments on this egg fight thread has more than the number on the one about the drunk driver.

I am outraged by the drunk driver, but there is no disagreement on that thread. There aren't two sides to the story there, everyone agrees that this is sad for the family and drunk drivers are an abomination.

Here there is a difference of opinion.

That's the difference. Don't compare the two. Of course the bigger story is the drunk driver's offence. But commenting there is not going to change anything and condolences can be sent in many ways.

This is a storm in a teacup - annually. The question is what is going to stop the same thing happening next year. Suggestions on a post card and sent to the potential eggers of next year.

Event

Saying paly students are stupid and all this such an ignorant thing to say. You people are in this bubble where everything has to be perfect. Frankly, s*** happens and we kids will have fun every once and a while. You forget that some of the smartest and level minded kids in the WORLD come out of the pausd district (PALY and Gunn). Its better this than half the things that go on in other places around the nation. Its sad how you can just put all of us down just because of a tradition that yes, make take some time and money to clean up, but that why we have the city workers and people willing to do this because they need a job. Some of you people make me sick. GO PALY 2-0-1-6

[Post removed.]

Susan- lets be real for a minute. Of course i agree with you saying that we (paly students as a whole) should be responsible for the clean up of this mess, but think back to ages ago when you went to school with the dinosaurs... Would you, as a high schooler, fess up and volunteer to clean it up. No. Get off your high horse. [Portion removed.]

I also find the sheer number of comments about this "topic" and the attitudes expressed to be really disappointing and pretty appalling, especially given the real news and events in this area lately.

I find the Paly Student attitude especially disconcerting -- he/she sees the vandalism as valid behavior because they are under academic pressure, and even says it's ok since someone else will clean up their mess. That person has a big shock in store when they grow up.

[Post removed.]

[Post removed.]

SUSAN FOR PALO ALTO MAYOR

This is a victimless crime, get over it. Don't give me the bull about the people who had to clean it up... they got paid to do it! These are the people who need jobs like these.

[Post removed.]

[Post removed.]

[Post removed.]

This egg war stuff for several year now is the same discussion,
there are serious people who are concerned about it and want it stopped or punished.
Then there are a few who consider vandalism a sort of God given right for various
strange reasons. Then there are some what I suppose are younger people who
participate or know those who do who come here to joke and taunt.

Since it is pretty much the same pattern every year, and can get nasty ...
why don't the editors just require uses to login and verify their comments?

Only in rich, Palo Alto does it seem alright to wast CARTONS of eggs.
There are hundreds of poorer folk that would love having a single egg for a meal.
If you must, write a targets name on the eggs and donate the carton to a food bank.