This is what I have basically:

<a href=http://somelink.com>

    <span>stuff</span>

    <span onclick=AwesomeFunction();>more stuff</span>

    <span>the last stuff</span>

</a>

Now, the problem is I want to keep the parent as a link but if the user clicks the span with the onclick event I don't want the browser to follow the link.

I've tried

event.stopPropagation();

but that only seems to stop the links onclick event from firing, or I'm doing something wrong.

I'm currently sort of in crunch mode and I don't want to spend too much time rewriting the code that generates this HTML, but it still can't be a hack since it's implemented in a pretty vital function of the site. Any help appreciated.