By Geetika Mahajan | Staff Writer

On the morning of Sept. 16, students who arrived at school early noticed that the doors to the trophy case in the senior hallway had been opened and the cabinet had been broken into; the cabinets had been opened, and the broken trophies lay scattered on the floor beneath. Though this may have seemed like an isolated incident at the time, it occurred again on the fifth of November. One attack occurred over the summer, while the other two occurred in the school year; one on Sept. 16 and the other on Nov. 5.

“My initial reaction was shock,” said athletic director Michelle Stone, “and disappointment, because those trophies are part of our history.”

According to assistant principal John Honerkamp, such damage to the trophy cases has occurred three times so far, all of them in this calendar year.

 “They’re kind of an easy target,” hypothesized Honerkamp, “and they’re also representative of the school too, so maybe it’s somebody with some sort of grievance with the school which may mean a former or new student.” 

Due to the recent outbreak of such vandalism, the school officials assigned to monitoring the issue have been led to believe that it could be due to one person or a group of people with a grievance against the school, since the trophies are representative of Irvington’s achievements. 

“It’s really sad that students would feel such apathy towards our sports teams,” said Nicolo Biscocho(10), who is on the boy’s varsity volleyball team, one of the sports that displayed trophies in the case, “because I know the amount of effort that it takes to participate in a competitive sport.” 

Officer Levano and other supervisors are involved with the situation, which means that there will be legal consequences no matter who the perpetrator is, be it a current or former Irvington student or someone from a different high school. Consequences for the perpetrator(s) of the crime vary depending on the age, motive, and location. If the instigator is someone within the district, there will be repercussions placed on them by the principal of their own school. In the event that the culprit is not an attendee of a Fremont Unified School District school, the ramifications they  face will solely be of the legal variety. Potential consequences include fines for damage of property or, as evident with cases of vandalism in the past, arrest charges. If the instigator is someone within the district, there will be repercussions placed on them by the principal of their own school In the event that the culprit is not an attendee of a Fremont Unified School District school, the ramifications they face will solely be of the legal variety. 

Two of the cabinets had broken glass, and the others had simply been opened. This suggests that whoever perpetrated these crimes must have had access to a key to open the cupboard at the time. Trophies lay scattered on the ground, and some were even on the roof. 

To prevent such events from occurring in the future, Irvington administrators have considered raising money through athletic boosters for stronger glass in the trophy cases, as they would like to continue displaying the trophies. Additionally, Mr. Honerkamp claims that efforts are being made to repair or replace trophies that have been damaged, though other teachers at the school would prefer to display the broken trophies as a symbol of what the school has endured. School officials are still attempting to find out who committed the crime, but they have no way of knowing who it was for certain.