A recent rash of vandalism incidents has had a negative impact on many middle and high schools in our county.  You may have seen recent local news stories about this viral trend, which began as a TikTok challenge, or you may have even heard your son talking about it.  Over the past few weeks some seriously destructive and/or unsanitary activity has been occurring in the bathrooms and in other areas of campus at Jesuit.  These incidents–ranging from excessive amounts of food and trash being left out all over campus to disabling soap dispensers and clogging the drains in bathrooms–has rendered some of our facilities temporarily unusable and/or unsafe and resulted in significant damage to school facilities and property.  This obviously is both a major inconvenience for everyone, but also a disturbing trend that presents serious safety concerns for our campus. 

Simply put, this activity must stop–immediately. It is not funny. It is not harmless. And it is not tenable. We do not accept this kind of behavior from any member of this school community.  We will continue working to identify the individual(s) responsible for this costly and disruptive activity and will hold them fully accountable for their actions. We owe it to each other to care for our school and care for each other by having everyone do their part to clean up after themselves and refrain from destructive or disruptive behavior that puts others at risk.  

We know that the overwhelming majority of our students are not participating in or encouraging this trend and do not want to experience this type of behavior carried out on their school campus. We want you to know that we are working very hard to provide your son with the best possible learning environment, free from such distractions and disturbances.  To that end, on Wednesday I used the PA system to encourage all students to share any direct knowledge of anyone responsible for defacing or destroying any part of our campus by talking to someone in the Dean’s Office, their counselor, a teacher, or any trusted adult on campus.  Alternatively, we have encouraged your son to speak with you directly, particularly if they need help in communicating with a trusted adult on campus.  Today, I am asking all parents within the Jesuit community: please, talk with your son about the destruction that has been taking place on our campus.   

Finally, I’d like to invite parents to also have a proactive conversation with your son about participating in any future “School challenges,” especially about rumored future “challenges” that involve person-to-person engagement, violence, and possible assault.  We take our responsibility to ensure the safety of all members of this community very seriously.  As such, any student who engages in any of these behaviors will be appropriately disciplined and, if necessary, referred to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office for possible prosecution.  Simply put, these types of behaviors are not in line with our Catholic values, nor the values of any community of good and decent people. They will not be tolerated in any way.

Please reach out to me directly or any member of the Administration, Faculty, or Staff if you have any information that can help us to put an end to these trends. I trust that with the support of all Jesuit parents, the primary educators of our students, we can put these incidents behind us and carry on rebuilding our campus community this school year.

Dean Theodule