I’m not sure who came up with the idea of senior pranks, but I’m not a fan. As a former school superintendent, I never thought they were funny, and some were expensive to handle.
The common explanation students offer up to justify their “pranks” at the end of their senior year is “we’re just having fun”. Everyone is ready for the summer and the seniors have “senioritis.” They’re about to leave school for good, and some are not afraid of the consequences anymore. Mid May is when the “fun” begins.
The pranks have two goals. First, to derail the school day and cause as much confusion as possible, preferably at the expense of the teachers. Second, to make them remember you. Some senior pranks are fairly tame and are more about having fun than anything else. Others …well, others are more dramatic.
I don’t recall “doing a senior prank” when I was in high school. Perhaps some of my 650 fellow graduates attempted something, but not me. I do know a group of French students (language, not the country) raised our French teacher’s Volkswagen just off the ground placing it on a set of blocks. It wasn’t noticeable to the naked eye, but when he got in the car and attempted to drive away, his tires just spun. Simple, but effective.
I’ve heard of students filling classrooms with balloons, releasing pigs or chickens in hallways, or switching one classroom’s furniture with another. I read about one school where the seniors removed a single screw from several sources… door handles, furniture, pencil sharpeners, hinges, athletic equipment, etc. over the course of several months. They were cautious enough to avoid removing anything that would cause the selected equipment to malfunction or bring about a dangerous condition. On the last day of school, they placed all the screws in a large box and presented it to the principal.
Early during my tenure in Addison, the seniors were the suspects when “someone” removed the valve stems from the buses. Every tire in the fleet had to be repaired. Expensive and not funny.
There were several during my time in Britton. I didn’t care for any, but the two I recall, were also the most dramatic. One year they blew construction foam in all of the outdoor locks hoping we wouldn’t be able to open the school. Fortunately, we were able to access one door, which led to the opening of all the doors from the inside. We called in a locksmith to help address the situation. Cha-ching!
My least favorite was the year they dumped manure and roadkill in front of the entrance to the school. There was a huge pile awaiting our arrival. The part that bothered me most was we were a school where elementary school students had a view of the mess. I was concerned that some of the young people would be intimidated by the roadkill. I could have accepted the manure, but the roadkill put it over the top. It wasn’t a pretty site.
A couple of months prior, during the annual evaluation of our school administration, the Board was concerned we weren’t handling discipline issues as we should. We were directed to “toughen up”. The senior manure roadkill prank was our first big challenge following the directive. Fortunately, we were able to identify the perpetrators in a timely manner. Some bragged about their involvement, which led to the downfall of all.
There were about six days before graduation so we decided the guilty would serve in-school suspensions for the remainder of their year. Since they had violated the district’s athletic code of conduct, athletes would forfeit their right to represent the school during the final spring activities which included the spring athletic tournaments. Everyone would be allowed to “walk” in graduation.
Parents weren’t concerned about the in-school suspension portion, but they appealed the loss of athletic eligibility. After allowing for the twenty-four-hour public notice, we called an emergency school board meeting to address the issue. The facts were clear. No-one disputed what happened. We explained everything, including our rationale for taking the action we did.
When it came time to vote, our decision was overturned by a vote of 4 in favor of allowing the athletes to continue their eligibility, 2 in support of the administration’s position, and 1 abstention. The Board President abstained because his niece was one of the students involved.
After completing her college degree, the Board President’s niece applied for a special education teaching position in the district. She’d recently completed her student teaching in a neighboring district, and the superintendent called me with a recommendation that I hire her. We were good friends, and I appreciated his supportive words. Since I had known her since she was a seventh grader, I knew she’d be a good candidate.
Many of the questions I asked prospective employees were situational. What would you do if … kinds of questions? I wanted to know how they processed things. I don’t recall her response when I asked, “What would you do if you were the first person to arrive at school one morning, and you discovered a pile of manure and roadkill in the entrance?” I followed that with, “What action would you take when it came time to discipline the students involved?” The look on her face said everything.
Well, I hired her. She still works in Britton, but now she’s the school counselor. Sometimes good people exercise poor judgement. I still stand by the action we took to deal with the “student prank”. A couple of decades later, one of the seniors involved is serving her alma mater well.