Window Pain: Looking Back One Year After The Window Incident

by Laszlo Stein

Sequoyah High School, Pasadena, CA

Last year, on February 11th, 2025, June B. ’27, Grade Representative at the time, broke a school window. What could have caused this? A TikTok challenge? A lack of knowledge about glass? Revenge? It was five minutes into her Health and Wellness class, and June decided to prioritize her wellness and took a well-deserved break. Her soon-to-be boyfriend Nate D. ’27 and her friend Loella K. ’27 decided to join her. They sat on the benches looking up at the Greene and Greene building owned by the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church. Nate then proceeded to tell a story about how his older sister used to mess with the church by throwing rocks on the roof so that the Reverend would be startled by the sound of thumping above their head. “So then Nate

was like, ‘Ooh, wouldn’t that be funny if we tried to throw a rock onto the roof?” said June.

June, who found no flaws in this plan, agreed. Nate took the first pitch. According to June, it ricocheted off the top of the window pane onto the left side of the house. June was certain she could outdo Nate and land her rock on the roof. “So I thought, ‘You’re stupid. You’re weak. I can do it.’” June picked up a ping-pong-sized rock and threw it underhanded at the church roof. “It hit smack dab in the middle of the window,” she

said.

June, Nate, and Loella all stared up at the window in silence. There was a rock-shaped hole in the window, rarely seen outside of cartoons. June turned to her friends and announced that she should probably get back to class. She then took off at a full sprint to escape the crime scene.

Nate and Loella saw that the only people who had seen the crime were fellow tenth graders Brandon M. ’27 Noah D.’ 27 and Jackson H. ’27, who they determined were not the snitching type. So, they decided to pretend nothing had happened. To project an air of innocence, they chit-chatted with Ben Ede, the music teacher at Sequoyah. During this, Loella clocked a skinny woman in her mid-thirties walking out of the church and over to Glenda De Paz, then the head of security. She was holding the golf-ball-sized rock.

Soon after, De Paz asked Loella, Nate, Brandon, and Jackson who was responsible for breaking the window. “We didn’t know what to say. You don’t want to rat out your friend, no matter what they did,” said Loella. De Paz announced that, in order to get to the bottom of the case, she was going to have to bring in Assistant Head of School and High School Director, Marc Alongi and Dean of Students for Community Life and Arts Department Chair, Viviana Palacio.

When Alongi heard that a church window had been broken he was “concerned about how that might've happened” said Marc. According to Loella, when the administrators arrived, Alongi was fuming. When The Barefoot Times reached out to Alongi about his attitude when he arrived and no one would admit to breaking the window he refused to comment.

To de-escalate, Brandon tried to stall by talking slowly, which only frustrated Alongi more, according to Loella. “Marc was like, ‘So what happened?’ And Brandon's like, ‘I'm getting there.’ And then Marc goes, ‘Get there faster!” recounts Loella. At this point, De Paz pointed out that June had been there shortly before. According to Loella, before dismissing the group, Alongi scolded them one last time.

“Marc goes, ‘I just want you all to know that you have seriously broken my trust. Breaking a window is not that big of a deal. Not telling me what happened—huge deal!’” said Loella. “He was putting all the blame on us even though we weren't the ones who broke the window.” Nate and Loella then searched for June, who was still at large. They advised her to turn herself in in order to avoid deeper trouble. June saw no other choice. June said that her punishment was entirely reasonable. She was simply told that she would have to pay for the damage caused. “But it’s been… months. And we have not gotten the invoice yet.”

June feels like she’s in the clear at this point, but if she does have to pay, especially if this article reminds Alongi to send her the bill, she estimates the cost to be about a three hundred dollars split between her and Nate. “I think it’s because the school is not very big on punishment,” she said. When asked if they would be held responsible, Alongi refused to comment. Although one year later they still haven't had to pay for the damages.

So why did June break the window? Simple. For Love. June and Nate both mentioned that after June broke the window, they had something to joke around about. “I think it made us closer,” said June. On March 7th, less than a month after June broke the window, June and Nate went on their first date; they have been together for almost a year since.