The Pit Vandalized After Winter Carnival

Seventh Period today, just a few hours after the festivities of Winter Carnival, many Seniors were shocked to see The Pit vandalized by ” ’16 ” “BA” and “D” spray painted onto the mural.

Immediately murmurs of potential suspects began to surface, ranging from a rogue and overzealous Senior to an Underclassman trying to get the Senior Class in trouble. After gazing at the graffiti, a few Seniors discussed the impact this event would have on the Senior trip, the Class as a whole, and even the Class of 2016’s legacy here at HHS.

A few minutes later another piece of explicit graffiti was discovered in The Pit’s bathroom. On the wall of one of the stalls was a crude drawing of male genitalia.

Censored for administrative reasons

This development was vaguely similar to an incident earlier in the day, according to Ms. Wahrenberger, who claims that hanging from one of the black curtain decorations covering The Pit was a white t-shirt with male genitalia drawn on it, which was promptly taken down by the Hall Patrol. The Broadside inquired about this event with several Senior inhabitants of the Pit, who stated that they doubt that the shirt incident is related to the graffiti.

HHS Dean of Students Julie Stevenson was notified by several Seniors (myself included) of the incident, and she immediately went to inspect the defacement. Ms. Murray later inspected the scene herself, stating that the surveillance footage would be checked to find the perpetrator.

Nothing much else is known for certain about this unfortunate incident. A group of Seniors congregated in The Pit speculated that the incident couldn’t have taken place before 5th period, their reason being that many Seniors who have 5th Period off occupy The Pit, which would make it hard to not notice someone with a can of spray paint vandalizing multiple sections of a wall. They also asserted that it couldn’t have been before 7th as that’s when a majority of students discovered it. Only the surveillance footage can be counted on for sure (unless the perpetrator made him or herself unrecognizable, which according to some is unlikely due to the intelligence on an individual who would find enjoyment in vandalizing their own school).

What is known for sure is that the responses from the Seniors present ranged from disappointment to outrage towards the incident.

“Whoever did this is going to be ostracized by everyone for the rest of the year,” one senior announced.

“This is going to ruin the class trip,” another complained.

Some however showed that they won’t be dismayed. When asked for a statement Raja Dhamrait, dressed festively in Senior colors, simply said:

“We’re not a school that does that.” And by the reactions from everyone in The Pit today, many would likely agree with him on that.

Editor’s note: I understand that some would rather have me not report on this incident, whether it be because the Administration doesn’t want to give any sort of “credit” to the perpetrator, or for the school to avoid getting a bad reputation. My response is that as both a journalist and as the Editor for our school’s newspaper, I have a responsibility to report on the news at the school in a truthful and unbiased manner. Bad  things are going to happen at this school from time to time, would you rather we ignored them and pretended that everything was alright, or is it better for us to acknowledge that bad things happen and also highlight the good that came out of them, in this case the positive response from the Seniors in the Pit. We’re a great school, an amazing school. Let’s not let this one incident change our minds on that.