<p>After reading BayAreaDad's threads about the unfortunate consequences of his D's missteps, I started thinking about another scenario that could potentially get a HS Senior expelled at this late date--namely masterminding or participating in the illegal/dangerous Senior prank. While most pranks are harmless and all in good fun, every year kids get arrested and/or do not graduate for doing extremely stupid things.</p>
<p>So, I think it would be wise, at this time, to talk with our kids about the possible ramifications of succumbing to peer pressure and crossing the line into unacceptable territory. Hopefully, most kids already know that vandalizing school property, releasing vermin in the hallways, or wallpapering the school with hardcore pornographic photos is not the way to go. Still, it doesn't hurt to offer a gentle or not so gentle reminder that they should exercise good judgment if participating in any prank.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on the subject or cautionary tales to share?</p>
<p>My D and her best friends took a large container of epsom salt and some manure and burned 06' into the senior lawn. The principal said it was the best prank ever.</p>
<p>A few years back , someone let loose a greased pig in our local high school.
Pigs are not so easy to come by in this area, so it was considered to be a pretty funny prank.</p>
<p>I am thinking that whatever if anything occurs fom this class will be mild since earlier this year some kids got arrested for pouring bleach on a rival high school's football field ( with their school's name )</p>
<p>DD organized what was said to be the best non-destructive prank. There is very little parking at their school and almost all the spots are for seniors. So the underclassmen park around on the area of the church behind the school. So last day for seniors they went really early and parked where the underclassmen park, went to their lot and laid out a huge breakfast picnic, filling all the spaces with people and blankets. The underclassmen had to park about a half mile to a mile form the school where there were no neighborhood parking restrictions. Very harmless, a lot of fun over breakfast, great prank..</p>
<p>The most famous senior prank at my school involved handcuffing our headmaster to a chair during morning assembly and having a stripper perform a lap dance on stage. In retrospect, things stayed very tame and clothes for the most part stayed where they are supposed to be. Needless to say, however, some members of th faculty and parents were outraged, even though the senior class thought it was hilarious, and we younger students thought it was scandalous. </p>
<p>All in all, do destruction of property, nothing illegal, and pretty well organized.</p>
<p>At my private school, students would have gotten in a lot of trouble for something like what Collegemom or LJE said because it's disrespectful to the janitors and grounds workers who would need to spend significant time regrowing the grass or cleaning up after the pig. </p>
<p>Keeping in mind the fact that my school's pranks had to be very tame and involve zero harm to property (even if not permanent), the most successful one I saw was a staged water balloon attack on all the underclassmen after they had all been gathered for some reason or another in a single spot outside. The seniors had to clean up the balloon remains afterwards. It was fun and easy, and the underclassmen enjoyed it as well since it was a nice day out.</p>
<p>At d's public school, the attitude was very much like corranged. Kids got into trouble for letting ping pong balls loose in the hallways - took a lot of time to clean up.</p>
<p>One year, the seniors removed all the chairs from the classrooms and stacked them up on the football field. (No one got in trouble because the seniors were the ones who had to put them back.)</p>
<p>Singersmom, I love your D's prank (as long as the juniors didn't get in trouble for being late to school!)</p>
<p>Our school had the senior pranking streaker who was tasered and made international news. Because he was over 18, he was brought up on indecency charges, which is considered a sex crime in Ohio.</p>
<p>Last year kids in a nearby district got charge with felonies for planting 150 alarm clocks in the school. They got in trouble both for entering the school with a key that had been missing for over a year and for causing a bomb scare. Eventually they all plea bargained down, from threats of four years in jail. My recollection is the ringleaders had to miss graduation.</p>
<p>I could see the prank DHRB mentioned ending very badly, too. Forcing someone to get a lap dance has to be sexual harassment. </p>
<p>We had to get our prank approved by the headmaster and head of building and grounds. It sounds stupid, and at first kids thought about not getting approval, but the headmaster brought us together, explained problems that had happened in the past, and basically talked about how disappointed he would feel if we went behind his back (and insinuated that there would be consequences if there was an unapproved prank). Worked like a charm. Of course, I'm talking about a very small school. This wouldn't be very effective in a huge public.</p>
<p>
[quote]
They got in trouble both for entering the school with a key that had been missing for over a year
[/quote]
Oh, I did forget to mention - the senior prank involving the chairs had the blessing of the head custodian; he's the one who let the kids into the building.</p>
<p>All the kids at d's high school know at this point to vet their ideas past the head custodian!</p>
<p>For DD's parking prank they had the school security folks involed, who helped them keep the undergrad from using the senior parking spots :) They were there in the AM to check everyone's sticker.</p>
<p>^^^ I never heard of any major damage, but they did have a heck of a time catching the little swine.
This actually happened before either of my kids were in high school yet..
I recall their being controversy about the ringleader's being able to participate in graduation ceremonies.
It was talked about everywhere , it seemed ..even on talk radio.</p>
<p>My oldest daughter's senior class pulled a really great one. Our school does a huge food drive each spring, it gets really competitive between classes about who brings in the most food. BUT all classes are expected to participate. When it was almost deadline and the Senior class hadnt contributed anything, the pressure was on, some gentle and some more blunt.... The seniors were already collecting, but not telling. They stockpiled the canned and boxed goods at our house. At 3am on the last day of the drive, they were let into the school and in the dark of the gymnasium lined up over a 1000 items to spell out "Class of 2006" on the floor. Snuck out quietly. When school opened the next morning and the seniors contribution was discovered, it was so wild and so neat. People still tak about that!</p>
<p>Last year, the seniors from a nearby school let loose pigs, clearly labelled 1 and 3. The teachers spent hours looking for number 2...</p>
<p>As I recall, there wasn't much damage, and even the teachers thought it was pretty clever so there was minimal fallout.</p>
<p>Our "muck up day" is this friday, and we have loads of different things planned, some of which rely on favours from the domestic staff (unlocking doors etc), and very few that will bother the teachers. They have gone to great lengths to prevent anything big, such as cancelling morning assembly, but we are not really on different sides. Both the students and teachers do not want anything destructive or offensive happening.</p>
<p>It is usually people who get into small groups and secretly do something that has not been discussed by the yeargroup as a whole that cause trouble.</p>
<p>Five seniors at my Ds high school spent last night in jail for breaking into the high school cafeteria with the plan of removing all the tables. She said they were in school today so I'm guessing they'll be graduating.</p>
<p>It's not so much a prank as it is an excuse for seniors to be goofy and not let the underclassmen in on it...</p>
<p>We're constructing a giant slip'n'slide on the lawn after we watch our senior video on Friday, and everyone else still has classes. It's basically a large sheet of plastic used at construction sites, and 5 trucks full of buckets of water. I don't think it will turn out according to plan but it should be pretty funny!</p>
<p>Kids have gotten into big time trouble at S's school for their pranks. It would be a good idea to review what is considered funny at a school, and what is considered vandalism. If there is a new head at the school, it would be wise to tread lightly. </p>
<p>It seems like things are so much stricter these days. When I went to high school, we never got caught for our pranks. These days the word seems to be out on everything.</p>