High School Prank Suspends Half of Senior Class

[mrodgers]

Well, back in my day... My school made it clear that anyone who participated in a senior prank would not walk at graduation, so an in-school suspension seems mild by comparison. Did the students know this would bring consequences? Had a precedent been set in prior years? If they knew the school didn’t allow this kind of thing then I have no sympathy for them. I also have no sympathy for the father in the article bemoaning the fact that the “good kids” are being punished for participating, as though the rules shouldn’t apply to them.

As students who are seniors today have grown up in the last 18 years of participation trophies and ruling the family doing whatever they want with no consequences, I'd guess no, they didn't know this would bring consequences.

I think I read no less than 4 times on the Twitter stuff mention of it including students from the top 10%. Funny as with 40 being half the class, that means 10% is only 8 kids. My class had more than double their graduating class fail 12th grade and not graduate.

 

[Kellykins1218]

Haha. This year’s Senior prank was 2 chickens in the school’s cafeteria during school hours. No one got in trouble. Basically if it wasn’t over the top, during school hours, and it was safe, it was allowed. Also Seniors took turns doing PA’s of people parking in their spots that they claimed with sidewalk chalk.

Took turns doing what?

 

[mrodgers]

Also Seniors took turns doing PA’s of people parking in their spots that they claimed with sidewalk chalk.

2 chickens in the cafeteria is hilarious but I want to know what this is because I can't figure it out what you mean.

 

[mrs. magoo]

My oldest son's class created an island beach in the bus loop. It was awesome they named it after a retiring teacher. They cleaned everything up by the end of the day. No harm or foul. The teachers even came out and hung with the kids. People dropped off doughnuts. It was awesome.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Did the school overreact? Yes. Should the kids know that there could be consequences for their actions - no matter how silly and harmless? Yes. Is the dad quoted in the article annoying? Yes.

I agree, with all three points.
Our senior prank(s):
--ad in the local newspapers, selling the school. "multiple bathrooms, studies, even a theater!" (I wrote the ad, lol)
--Dixie cups half filled with liquid in the principal's office (from the door to the window, which is how they got out)....colored some so when laid out, it showed '89'. (The janitor thought this was hilarious, and let the boys in to the office, unlocked the window and watched them do it. The next day was his day off, so he didn't have to deal with it, lol. He didn't like the janitor who was on that day, so it was a win-win in his book.))
--Painted our team rivals letter on their field OUR school colors (theirs were blue and white, ours, green and gold). (It's ok, they did the same thing to us our freshman year. )
--Hung a Kermit the frog stuffed animal in the VP office, with condoms attached everywhere. (VP had a fear of puppets, including the Muppets, and he was the one who fought for us to be able to access condoms in the health office. And he was dying, yet still worked because 'the kids need me'.)
---along with the required 'streaker' through the swim pool area and down freshman hall. (school had different halls, where most of that class had their lockers). He wore a ski mask, so no one 'knew' who he was...
--Theater group advertised for one play; on the first day, when they asked all the teachers/staff to attend, they did a totally different one. (they advertised Jesus Christ Superstar; and did CATS instead...)
--A few of senior football players set up a card table during halftime at a football game (instead of going to the locker room) and started playing GO FISH, and the announcers annoucing each play. When halftime was over, they got up and moved the table, carefully, over to the sidelines, and the cheerleaders sat down to play.


No punishment handed out for our pranks.

My dad attended the same school (but it was in a different location at the time, way back when) and they took apart the principal's car, and stuck it on the roof, supposedly.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

TWO weeks of in-school suspension??? TEN DAYS? For forks in a football field?

What a bunch of authoritarian squares.

In fact, the kids should be commended for aerating the turf for free.

 

[Turn the Page]

Senior pranks used to be a time honored tradition at our school but the class that graduated my Freshman year ruined that.

They didn't really do a prank. They painted a giant ***** on the side of the school, covered the librarians car with shaving cream and let it bake in the sun all day, and basically ran through the halls cheering and banging on lockers.

Unfortunately one of the kids bumped into a trash can and knocked it over and it happened to have a glass bottle in it so the local news media spun that into "throwing glass bottles around." A female science teacher who was about 5'3" and probably 115 pounds soaking wet decided she was going to stop them and stepped out in front of 50 stampeding seniors trying to get them to stop. Well the inevitable happened. I'm sure the kids in front tried to stop but couldn't. Unfortunately the teacher got a knee injury in the process. What started out as just stupid went sideways quick. Baring the property damage of course, that was bad from the get go.

If memory serves the senior trip was totally cancelled but i'm not sure if there was anything beyond that.

I always thought some farm kid should get 3 pigs, grease them up, and release them in the school labeled 1, 2, and 4.

 

[ronandannette]

...--Dixie cups half filled with liquid in the principal's office (from the door to the window, which is how they got out)....colored some so when laid out, it showed '89'. (The janitor thought this was hilarious, and let the boys in to the office, unlocked the window and watched them do it. The next day was his day off, so he didn't have to deal with it, lol. He didn't like the janitor who was on that day, so it was a win-win in his book.))

These weren’t exactly honor students were they? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to start at the window and work their way to the door?

 

[SteveH]

Harmless prank, nobody hurt or humiliated, should have just had them clean it up and apologize. Move along, but instead they try to made a federal case out of it. The blow back they are getting is 100% justified.

 

[Kellykins1218]

I don't understand why they're pointing out that some are honor students, either. They didn't act very smart.

 

[Kellykins1218]

These weren’t exactly honor students were they? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to start at the window and work their way to the door?

My 1st thought was that the door probably opened inward, but had a window in it, so the principal could see the cups with the 89 but not be able to open the door without spilling them

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't understand why they're pointing out that some are honor students, either. They didn't act very smart.

They don't want the "good kids" to have their rep affected They think their kids are above it all because after all they are the top 10 of their class (of 80ish..) Boy those kids are probably going to be in a for rude awakening depending on where they go to college where your ranking means nothing to other college students especially if their parents use it to get them out of consequences and no one likes a bragging person..can you imagine telling people in college that you were the salutatorian of your high school? They would probably say "and " It's a great accomplishment and should be celebrated, it's not something that should be used to get you out of something.

If the dad of the salutatorian had made the case of inequitable punishment and just said "students who only forked the field and students who went inside the school have received the same penalty" he probably wouldn't come across like he thinks his kid is better than the others.

 

[neverlandsky]

2 chickens in the cafeteria is hilarious but I want to know what this is because I can't figure it out what you mean.

Sorry PA’s = Public announcements. Seniors did school wide public announcements that went like this, Staff said “Please standby for a very important announcement”, Senior would get on and say “ Whomever is in my parking spot marked with this design please move your vehicle, I’m a Senior and it was clearly marked as mine”.

 

[Orion Nebula]

I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand I don't think the parents knowing about it makes it "OK". But I do feel that the reaction was a bit harsh, at most they should've made the kids clean it all up. My daughter's "prank" this year got caught before it could happened and is WAY worse. The kids decided to purchase a thousand or so crickets and release them... she grad early though and luckily had nothing to do with it. But that seemed like a really bad idea.

 

[Colleen27]

Half the senior class is 40 people. We had 350 total in mine. But it sounds more shocking to say half the senior class (even if factually correct). Although that is quite the collaboration to have 40 people all in on the same prank.

IDK at my high school senior pranks did mean you didn't walk on graduation and could face suspension. There was indeed a few that did not walk on graduation though I don't know if they were suspended.

In this situation schools shouldn't really have to figure out what prank is fine and what isn't. Best, in this case, to treat it all the same or not care at all about the pranks. Then you'd have an endless stream of complaints over why one prank wasn't a big deal.

Using the status of the students is not a good look. Are they trying to say if the kid was just an average student then the punishment is okay but because it was the Honor kids it's not? Plus is the lesson you want to pass on that if you're an Honor student you shouldn't have to have any consequences?

Do I think the prank was bad? Nah it's pretty minor. But this whole thing could have been done off school property and I'm betting the town wouldn't have had an issue with it. Maybe not a senior prank in the traditional sense but still.

But is that really a hard line to draw? Our schools do it - senior pranks that don't cause damage to the school are tolerated, but those that do are considered to cross the line into vandalism and trigger punishments. And yes, there is some good natured oneupsmanship between classes, but since the line is clearly drawn on no damage, it doesn't escalate in problematic ways.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I don't understand why they're pointing out that some are honor students, either. They didn't act very smart.

Why not? Like I said, they were aerating the football field.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

But is that really a hard line to draw? Our schools do it - senior pranks that don't cause damage to the school are tolerated, but those that do are considered to cross the line into vandalism and trigger punishments. And yes, there is some good natured oneupsmanship between classes, but since the line is clearly drawn on no damage, it doesn't escalate in problematic ways.

From a school's standpoint? Yeah it's my opinion it's easier for them to say no senior prank period especially these days where parents don't hesitate to put up stinks about this or that. It's fair to just say "listen no pranks". Plus what if something that was never intended to cause damage unfortunately did, you'd have parents screaming that their kids didn't mean to do any harm and it should be the intent behind it that should be looked at. IDK I was just looking at it from a school's standpoint. I'm not saying that there aren't schools in my metro that shrug it off but I can understand and see it as just best to take a "no prank".

I'll give an example from my metro. In 2019 a kid did a prank where he put his high school up on Craig's list. That's not vandalism or damage to property. Seems minor enough. However, the student said in the ad it was "listed the reason for the school's sale was due to a loss of students coming up." Seems okay, except that there had been recent school shootings and just the overall events in recent years. The student intended the comment to mean because the class was graduating. The school said the wording to be an implied threat. He was given a 3-day suspension (which was the amount of days left in the school year) and was not allowed to walk during graduation (which is actually what the kid was most upset with). The district said "while there was no credible threat after an investigation, any student will face discipline regardless if the threat is "a real or implied threat, whether it is deemed credible or not." Criminal charges were not filed but the student but the police advised the teen to take down the ad and the teen said he regrets his wording and his choice of a prank (which he specifically said he wanted to do something more than just what he saw as lame pranks like releasing "live mice" or "building a beach in the front lobby area."). Now this particular case the ACLU got involved. It went to court, the court ruled in favor of the school and the student didn't get to walk. Maybe if all the kid had done was put the ad up on craigslist but left out the wording it may not have gone anywhere, IDK.

I know people can say well that was an overreaction, that's crazy what the school did but pranks can get out of hand easily, pranks can have zero intention of being bad or threatening but they have a chance of snowballing. If all kids did these days was do the infamous pig prank where nothing happened but mild confusion for a bit maybe it wouldn't be such an issue. But over the years kids want to be do things bigger and "better" and more risky. The few spoil the bunch and can cause schools to take a harder stance, at least I can understand if that happens I guess is what I'm saying.

 

[sam_gordon]

--Painted our team rivals letter on their field OUR school colors (theirs were blue and white, ours, green and gold). (It's ok, they did the same thing to us our freshman year. )

Sorry, that IS vandalism in my opinion.

 

[BrianL]

The kids should be punished because that prank was pretty lame - there's barely any forks in that field! They've gotta be at least as dense as in the pic from @slo above, otherwise it just looks like litter. Come on, kids, up your game!

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

My 1st thought was that the door probably opened inward, but had a window in it, so the principal could see the cups with the 89 but not be able to open the door without spilling them

His entire door was glass. He said that it was so he could keep an eye on the kids who were in trouble; there was the 'principal's bench' (brass plaque on it) was straight across from his door. His desk faced the door. He said he was impressed at the ingenuity; and that it was a much better prank than the one pulled on him at the last school he was principal at. No specifics given on that prank, as I remember.

*I should have said, they laid out the cups from the closed door to the window, and climbed out the window. The moved the chairs into the corner and pushed the desk up against the wall, to give more space. They even moved his rug that he had spread under the desk (tile floors). The janitor, the next morning, had to climb in and pick up the cups in the opposite direction, then replace the desk, rug and chairs. A bit of work for the janitor, but mostly a harmless prank.