High School Prank Gone Too Far?

School officials are investigating recent vandalism to a cowboy memorial monument and the football stadium at , says Mike Nagel, executive director for the maintenance and operations department.

Herb Guidry, a Livermore High wrestling coach who also works for the district's maintenance department, suspects the vandalism may be related to the cross-town rivalry between the two high schools. He says on the night before last week's the all-weather track on campus was vandalized.

Guidry describes the vandalism to the track and cowboy memorial in an e-mail he sent to Livermore Patch:

Granada was written in gold spray paint on the track in front of the Livermore stands. They also spray painted  the goal posts. That writing was covered up before the game by the painter of the maintenance department. Unfortunately it didn't stop there. After the game on either Thursday night or Friday night someone thought it would be a good idea to spray paint (black) a statue of a bucking horse and cowboy. It is on top of a high pole about 30 feet off the ground. They climbed the pole and sprayed what they could reach.

"The reason this is bothering me and other alumni is that the statue was created for a young man who lost his life due to a car accident," Guidry says. "This has gone way past rival pranks. This young man was a close friend of mine, and I am sickened that someone would disrespect a memorial!"

The young man Guidry is referring to is Nick Marcon, a popular Livermore High athlete who died in the '90s.

Regina Naval-Cortez also sent an e-mail to Livermore Patch after hearing of the vandalism to the memorial:

The white bucking horse that is placed near the Livermore High School scoreboard had been painted black. This horse was placed in memory of Nick Marcon who tragically died in a car accident while attending LHS. As a friend of Nick, I find whoever did this had no clue what that horse meant. They destroyed something that meant a lot to not only the Marcon family but the many friends and LHS staff who had the privilege to have had Nick in their lives. It would be great to find out who was responsible for this and have them pay to correct it!

The memorial for Nick has since been repainted, Guidry says.

While there's no proof that students vandalized the statue, Guidry says the cross-town pranks between the schools must end.

"Whoever did it may not have known it was a memorial. But they did it, and it hurt a lot of people," Guidry said. "Enough is enough."