The Palo Alto High School senior class is frustrated after the second vandalism incident on the senior deck in five days occurred late Wednesday night.
The graffiti included the spray-painted text ‘2018’ and ‘Harambe,’ a popular social media trend following the death of a gorilla named Harambe in May at the Cincinnati Zoo. Harambe was also the subject of the first instance of graffiti.
The Paly custodial staff removed the graffiti early this morning, according to Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson.
“They cleaned it [the graffiti] up right before first period started,” Berkson said. “That is all I know. There was graffiti on the deck. That is all I can tell you.”
Seniors had repainted the deck before the school year started to make up for the delayed construction of a new deck.
“Six of us showed up over the weekend before school even started and put a lot of time into [painting] the deck,” senior Timothy Liu said. “It was self-funded and we spent a good six hours on it.”
Liu and others expressed disappointment about the graffiti, especially given that fellow classmates had repainted the deck following the first instance of vandalism that occurred before school started.
“I think it is really disrespectful, not only to us but to the administration as well,” senior Matilda Kenrick said. “They [the administration] have already repainted it once, a lot of people have been working on it and I just think that it is super disrespectful.”