KIDS THESE DAYS:

This is a special message to the Costa Mesa Eight, the kids who were caught toilet-papering Mesa Verde Drive on the first day of school last week and cited for curfew violations.

In a strict sense, or perhaps even a not-so-strict sense, decorating the trees along Mesa Verde Drive in Costa Mesa on the first day of school is vandalism.

I’ve never thought of it that way, but some do and it is important for you to understand their position. You don’t have to agree — just understand.

Yours is not a harmless prank, they believe, for there is a cost to the city for clean up.

I am far from alone in reporting that I looked forward to the event at the beginning of the school year. (Note: I did object to the toilet-papering last June. It was overkill. But the September version is OK.)

At a recent local event with dozens of Costa Mesa parents and other adults, I did not find a single person who objected to the September prank. Many, in fact, also said they looked forward to it.

So the first thing you need to know is no one turned you in — the police acted on their own. Any further discussion of how you and I feel about the toilet-papering, that is, whether it is vandalism or a harmless prank, is a waste of time. That’s because, sadly, the status of this tradition is now “game over.”

You can stew over it all you want, but that will not change that the Costa Mesa Police Department has a new tradition involving catching you as you attempt to toilet-paper the street each year.

Yeah, I know you can move the date or you can toilet-paper another area. I heard all that last week. Don’t go there — it will not be the same. You see, even if the police came out with a message that they will no longer patrol Mesa Verde Drive on the first day of school and you can toilet-paper to your heart’s content, it will never be the same.

That’s because half the excitement in toilet-papering anything is the risk of getting caught. And if you know there are no risks to your prank, you may as well do it at noon.

Right now, there is another issue that is far more important than looking in the rear view mirror.

From what I was told last week, the curfew violation is a misdemeanor that requires each student to appear before a judge for disposition or sentencing.

My good friend Fred Szkolnik is an attorney who is also a judge pro tem. I presented the curfew situation to him and he directed me to a page on the website for Huntington Beach, which spells out what happens when curfew is violated.

When I asked Szkolnik what punishment he’d mete out to the Costa Mesa Eight, he replied, “If I were judge I would impose a suspended sentence and probably some type of community service to clean something up. If they completed the community service in a timely manner, I would allow the cases to be dismissed.”

That sounds reasonable.

STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Send story ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com.