Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is facing fresh scrutiny after WIRED obtained over 1,600 documents revealing he operated an illegal school at his Palo Alto compound for years, sparking a neighborhood revolt. The "Bicken Ben School," named after a family chicken, operated without permits while neighbors complained about preferential treatment from city officials.
The tech world's most powerful neighborhood just got a lot more interesting. Mark Zuckerberg has been quietly building an empire in Palo Alto's exclusive Crescent Park area, but his latest venture - an illegal school named after a pet chicken - has his affluent neighbors up in arms.
Caroline Haskins at WIRED just dropped a bombshell investigation backed by 1,665 pages of city documents that paint a picture of Silicon Valley royalty playing by different rules. The "Bicken Ben School" - yes, really named after one of the Zuckerberg family's chickens - operated without proper permits from their sprawling compound that now spans 11 formerly separate properties.
The timeline is particularly damning. While California Department of Education records claim the school opened in October 2022, neighbors spotted operations as early as 2021. The school's director had already updated her LinkedIn profile two and a half years before the official opening date, suggesting this wasn't exactly a spur-of-the-moment educational experiment.
What makes this story fascinating isn't just the regulatory violations - it's the pattern of behavior that's been building for nearly a decade. Since 2016, neighbors have been documenting complaints about Zuckerberg's expanding presence in their quiet residential enclave. Construction noise, intrusive security details, staff traffic, and parking issues have turned what should be a peaceful neighborhood into what feels like a corporate campus.
One particularly telling message from frustrated neighbors to the Zuckerberg family office reads: "Ideally, stop, or at a minimum, give us an extended break from the acquisition, demolition, and construction cycle, to let the neighborhood recover from the last eight years of disruption." That's the kind of plea you'd expect from residents dealing with major infrastructure projects, not a neighbor's house renovations.
The school itself appears to have been created to serve the compound's residents - essentially a private educational facility masquerading as a home-based operation. Under Palo Alto's residential zoning codes, operating such a facility requires specific permits and compliance with various safety and operational standards. The documents suggest these requirements were simply ignored.
