Despite the tantalizing three-day weekend ahead, several Phillips Academy students could not enjoy last Friday night. Four unidentified teenagers attacked students with raw eggs near Stearns and Stevens.
The teenagers threw eggs at two students walking near Stevens and later threw eggs at students and faculty playing ping-pong outside of Stearns.
Sheiling Chia ’12 alerted Public Safety after the teenagers attacked her and Andrew Wilson ’12 on the path from Stearns to Stevens around 9:45 pm. Public safety was able to apprehend the pranksters. The pranksters received a no-trespass letter from Andover, which says that if they are found on campus again, they will be arrested.
Chia and Wilson encountered the teenagers walking out of Stevens. Chia did not recognize the teenagers and noticed that the girls walking around Stevens did not live there. She questioned them on their intents, but they responded by telling Chia to mind her own business.
“We were walking on Chapel [Ave.] towards [George Washington Hall], and I just heard an egg land about two feet away from me. I guess it was meant for me because it was just the one egg and it missed,” Chia continued.
According to Wilson, the attacks have occurred more than just this once. Stearns has been egged on several Friday nights. This is the first time, however, that Phillips Academy students have been targeted.
Wendy Cogswell, Community Relations Officer, said in an email to The Phillipian, “This year, PA has had many more [attacks] to dorms, academy buildings and vehicles parked on campus.”
A few minutes after the incident with Chia and Wilson, another there was another egging, this time behind Stearns. Tobi Coker ’12, Charles Pecora ’12 and Dr. Thomas Kane, House Counselor in Stearns and Instructor in English, were attacked while they were playing ping-pong on the patio outside the dorm’s common room.
Pecora said, “They [the attackers] just walked by, and they were talking real loud, and then they just threw them [the eggs] and split.”
According to Pecora, the two eggs the teenagers threw hit the ping-pong table, but it was possible that the teenagers were aiming for them.
Thomas Conlon, Director of Public Safety, said that there were extra Public Safety officers on duty that night helping with campus patrol and parking because of Grasshopper Night. The presence of additional personnel allowed the officers to find and apprehend the teenagers on Bartlett Street after receiving Chia’s call.
When Public Safety officers on the lookout for the teenagers spotted two unidentified boys running down Bartlett Street, they stopped the teenagers. The teenagers identified their van, parked on Judson Street. Two other unidentified girls came up the street close behind the boys. The officers discovered a supply of eggs in the van.
The group of pranksters included two male and two female teenagers, and one of the girls was covered in mud after falling behind Stearns, said Conlon. All four students participated in each of the egging incidents.
The Public Safety officers got the names and addresses of the students and called their parents and told them to come pick the teenagers up.
According to Conlon, the Andover Police Department noticed the situation and asked if Public Safety needed any help. However, Public Safety already had the situation under control.
Conlon said, “It was mostly PAPS. APD did respond afterwards, everything was over, and no one actually saw these kids throw the eggs. So we didn’t really catch them red-handed, but one and one equals two. They had the eggs in the car, they were running from the building and so forth.
Conlon continued, “It goes a cycle, every year there are a few incidents. [Phillips Hall] was egged a couple of months ago. I don’t know if it was by the same crew, but every time we seem to stop a group of local kids, maybe the next day it happens to [Phillips Hall]. The Public Safety cars have been hit a few times by eggs. It was a good effort, a good team effort to get these guys.”
