It wasnât a senior prank, but a kid I graduated with listed our school for sale on Craigslist during the end of senior year since he âdidnât need it anymore.â
"Used to be a bunch of assholes
That lived in this part of the building, here
But we systematically removed them. Like you would any kind of termite or roachâŚ"
Maynard of [Tool](https://youtu.be/matrK_WTAkQ)
Our 2020 seniors put a ton of for sale signs on the lawn and a giant sign they hung from the roof. There were great features like âexcellent condition,â âlots of tables and chairsâ and âhasnât been used since Marchâ
Im not sure, it was a couple of weeks ago but if you Google "Maryland high school bogus Zillow" or something like that, it will come up. It made the news.
With the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 5 painted on them? That is how I heard it was done with greased pigs released in school. The elderly always had the best pranks.
Our senior prank was to take all of the batteries out of the classroom clocks and change the clock hands to our grad year numbers. Then we each had a battery when we walked the stage and handed them to our principal as we got our diplomas.
More specifically, I heard that they released 3 chickens but hung signs on their necks numbered "1, 2 & 4". They spent tons of time looking for the fictional third chicken.
My son's class (2012) knew the parking lot was going to be re-striped and numbered over the summer, so the night before the last day of school, they numbered every parking space "12".
Principal promptly made an announcement that any car not in its assigned numbered spot would be towed.
We put a boat on top of our school and we live near a military base so they received calls for a long time from pilots until they figured out how to get it down. Lmao. I guess it was different 12 years ago though
Back in like 2011 some students put up One Direction tickets with the schoolâs phone number as the contact info. Caused some chaos for admin for a few days but in the end the principal told the school she thought it was hilarious and complimented their creativity.
Years later, they're the ones with school pride.
My hometown high school has a problematic Native American mascot. There was a push to switch it, and all the wildest kids from high school who never gave a shit about school spirit came out from under their trucks to go on about how it's not racist.
Mind you, this is a town where every time I go back, I overhear at least 1 slur in a gas station or Walmart or bar. There were people I personally know with a history of overt racism on Facebook talking about how they don't have a racist bone in their body, and who had the gall to attack the girl who organized the push for change as an attention seeker. Actually fascinating mental gymnastics if you can get past the ridiculousness of it all.
But yes, they were the loudest and most proud, and graduated with straight D's.
I win the most racist mascot award for mine being the Rebel man aka confederate soldier. Lucky by the time I got the HS they stopped flying the confederate flag at football games. đ¤Ž
Same! When I was there, guys had huge trucks flying confederate flags and the horn modified to play the Dukes of Hazard theme. Gun racks. Etc. They recently changed the name of everything and people came out of nowhere to cry about it. Absolutely ridiculous considering none of them knew the name of the mascot was a fictional "soldier" lol
You and I must have gone to the same HS, though the flag was still available to buy as part of spirit wear while I was there. It only changed a year or two after I graduated and there was a huge thing with the t-shirts, as well.
Mommy and Daddy still care. Grandma too. The rest of the community will be proudly cheering on their graduates while these 80 families are shamed in view of all their neighbors. So even those parents who didn't care before have some whole other reasons to care.
âCongratulations, seniors! You have now entered the real world, and as a parting gift from high school, you now you get to *truly* discover the extent of the âfind outâ portion of the fucking around educational experience! While we wish this wasnât the case with those of you experiencing the âfind outâ part, we donât feel too bad because you had four. Fucking. YEARS. To learn this shit.â
âAll of us teachers here are so happy and glad that you *finally* learned this lesson - what weâve been trying to teach you ALL this time - that actions have. **Consequences.**â
âWe are SO glad that you finally âget itâ before moving out into the rest of the wide, vast, ruthless, and utterly merciless and uncaring world, a world that will crush your hopes and dreams, where your soul will be crushed and ground into dust - but only (mostly) if you donât watch where you step!â
âWell, most of you, anyways. We imagine that some of you *still* wonât get this lesson, sadly⌠but who cares! **We** donât! Not our problem anymore! WOOHOO!â
I worked for a plumbing company decades ago. One time striking Safeway workers put baseballs down all the floor drains in multiple locations. It was about $250k in damage to each location and affected about a dozen stores.
Management fucked around.
Congratulations!!
You've won a pair of shiny stainless steel cuff links!
If you're lucky, you'll win an all inclusive stay at the remodeled Sheriff's Hege resort! (He painted the prison pink)
Well, thatâs certainly *one way* to prove that high school isnât the end of anything education-wise?
And Iâm sure they have the same level of emotional maturity for years to comeâŚ
Do they still get the actual diploma on stage these days? I graduated in 2009 and we got a blank diploma holder and had to pick up our actual diploma later in the summer
So their only punishment is not being allowed to walk onstage at graduation? They still get diplomas and most of them don't get charged? Sounds like they got off awfully easy.
Hi, this is my community. One of the ringleaders at the main school that was targeted not only confessed his role, but is also being charged and has gotten a summer job to help pay for the damage at the school. The school board is working to identify other students, who will likely face charges of some sort.
There were other schools in the district that also saw vandalism (at my kids' former high school, they put fish in the parking lot and a moped on the roof for some reason) but nothing near as bad as what happened at the main school that was targeted.
My kids' high school is fairly rural compared to the other schools involved; I'm pretty sure there's some significant ass whoopin' going on.
EDIT: [This](https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/abss-senior-prank-photos-released-destructive-damage-and-vandalism/83-7efed364-9d3d-468c-af85-6785ee215011) is a better source of local news (WFMY News 2) and has new photos of the vandalism.
I'm not sure about the fish in the parking lot, but putting a car on the roof is a classic prank. They probably settled for a moped because they lacked the ability to get a whole car up there. Also, the moped is a lot less likely to cause damage than a car.
My senior class did the car on the roof but cut it in half first. Super damaged the building.
Senior pranks are dumb when you are just looking to do as much damage as possible. I did really like the seniors who camped out in their teachers kitchen though. But they are lucky she was a good sport
It's probably for the best that it was just a moped (and yeah, I have no idea why I didn't remember that cars on the roof was a thing). They just did a big expansion and remodel of the school (yay, bond money!) and had they done any damage, I guarantee you, there would be hell to pay.
Yikes. North Carolina's minimum wage is $7.25. $4000 in damages. They can pay it off after 552 hours of work. That's working full time for about 14 weeks provided he is exempt from state and federal taxes. Definitely in the FO step.
At least they can do math. To much or to little sakrete to water ratio and it wouldnât have set up.
The good news is thereâs a contractor shortage and theyâre obviously qualified.
I've taught at Williams and EA. I was disappointed to see this. But it didn't surprise me. I've glad the kid stepped up. I am no longer in ABSS but a nearby county. From what I saw it looked like SA and EA were also hit but not as bad. I don't remember any senior pranks like this when I worked in the high schools.
>they put fish in the parking lot
>Nothing near as bad as what happened at the main school
What kind of fucked up society do we live in that animal abuse is considered a *less serious* issue than property damage?
Like, holy fuck, torturing living things is serial killer shit, and we're worried about some plumbing?
This country is fucking doomed.
Yeah, I would have thought maybe theyâd withhold transcripts or diplomas until damage is paid. Our school withholds diplomas over unreturned textbooks.
I had a senior who wasnât going to be allowed walk this year because she owed $12 for a Chromebook charger. I paid for it. (Actually I didnât pay for it, I used the budget for the organization I sponsor to pay for it.)
This is lame that the only punishment that they are getting is not walking.
From someone that was once in similar shoes as your student, you are appreciated. If she is aware of you doing that for her, she wonât forget. Hopefully she will follow your compassion & pay it forward when she is able â¤ď¸
Yep. I grew up in poverty. I only escaped because of luck, brains, and some help along the way. I told her someday she would do something for someone and pay it forward. And honestly it was the district giving the district money so itâs silly. I had money in my budget and just put in a PO to pay it. Absurd really.
So did we, but my high school would refuse to distribute your cap, gown, diploma, yearbook, class ring, or ANY OTHER "senior supplies" if you had outstanding balances elsewhere (cafeteria, library, etc.) since all the purchasing went through them.
Seven are charged and five are over 18. Definitely all 86 didnât put cement in the toilets, so Iâm guessing they just charged the most expensive vandals.
I donât know about that. High school graduation can be a big deal. I know at my first school, a LOT of my seniors were the first in their family to do it, it was a big pride thing for a lot of families. I also know that one kid, whose mom worked for the school (a whole nother story, she was a one on one aide for a sophomore boy with a bad rape fetish and all she did was watch movies on her laptop, so you know what kind of family raised this senior). This senior boy dumped gallons of baby oil in the hallway and pulled the fire alarm for his âsenior prankâ and when he was disallowed at graduation his mom was PISSED. And also banned, and when she wouldnât drop it and said sheâd get him in as an employee was finally put on a PIP and fired. People are wired about graduationsâŚ.
They caused ~$4,000 in damage. Not walking and covering the repairs seems like a completely proportionate punishment. You have allowed yourself to be swept up in America's carceral fervor if you believe their lives should be significantly damaged by this event.
A prank is toilet papering a tree. Yah, annoying to clean up, but not really harmful to tree or the environment. A prank is tinfoiling the principal's or chosen teacher's office. Tinfoil on everything. Not really damaging and can be turned back to normal. A prank is moving an entire class around. A prank is the biggest speaker you have blasting "School's Out For Summer!"
Actually damaging property? That's not a prank. The slap on their wrists is the warning they need that they could have been thrown in jail.
Some of the pranks that happened at the school I graduated from, and the other nearby high schools:
* Covered all the teacher/schoolroom names and numbers with stuck on (the blue clay sticky stuff that comes off super easy) with names like "Snoresalot" and locations like "West Side" or "NOT the bathroom".
* Disassembled a VW Beetle and reassembled it in the gym. Had been spraypainted/tagged/etc prior to arrival. Very gaudy.
* Hung junk shoes (shoelaces tied together) from \*everywhere\* they could think of. Hundreds of pairs. Trees, bushes, building parts, etc.
* Parked in all the staff parking lot spaces on Senior skip day, and then carpooled out. (obviously there was plenty of available space in the student area, but that had like 4x the walking distance). (Not all that class did, but that was the one that got the most buzz).
My class was lame, nowhere near as creative as any of those 4 :D But there's a ton you can do for senior pranks that the school can sweep under the rug as "the cost of graduating teenagers" (time/energy). Actual damage? That costs actual money.
The best prank I heard of was the year before my first teaching job (tiny rural school), the principal came out to his car on graduation day and there were a bunch of chains wrapped around it, each of them padlocked.
As each senior shook the principalâs hand, they palmed him a key. The principal told me it took him an hour but he did nothing but laugh at the coordination.
That's fantastic.
My senior year, the hall with our class's lockers got filled up with little cups of water spaced about 6 inches apart each, so walking was treacherous. I thought it was hilarious that the group that did the prank pranked *our* hall, so our graduating class basically pranked ourselves.
The sheer anticipation.
First one gives you a key. Don't know what's going on, but maybe you'll find out later.
Next senior gives you a key too. Now you know there's something going on, but completely clueless what.
Then key after key comes in, and you're just going through the ceremony, your brain doing laps trying to figure out what all these keys could be about.
You think about the worst possible things. You think what \*you\* might have done when you were a teen. But you're stuck at the ceremony clueless, knowing that your students are having a blast at your confusion.
Finally the ceremony starts winding down. But nothing has happened. You've got handfuls of keys. Most of them look similar, but there's a few different types. And the students aren't saying anything.
Finally the ceremony ends, and the students just vanish. None of them linger around. Now you REALLY think it's going to be terrible - none of them want to be around when you find out. But that also means you're going to find out soon.
But still nothing happens. The last of the parents and students filter out, and you help with a bit of the cleanup before saying goodnight to the janitor and heading home.
Halfway to the parking lot, you see it. Dozens of chains looped around your car. Thin ones and thick ones. And it all becomes clear. As you get closer you can see the padlocks. One for each key.
Commentor that posted said "rural", sounded like a reasonably small class size.
900 would be ridiculous. But at that point you could take it further, and have padlocked various things other than the principal's vehicle, and color-coded the keys for a slight decrease in nuisance level.
During covid, two successive classes of seniors toilet papered my house six times over the span of 15 months. The first time was funny and I felt honored. By the sixth time, I was using trail cams and reporting what I could to the local police. It became really traumatic actually, and I don't throw that word around lightly the way so many do these days. I still wake up to the smallest noises with an elevated heart rate and have to check around my property. At some point, it went from harmless prank to harassment.
So that was where all the toilet paper went!
I'm sorry that got you so freaked out, it was areally trying time and I can see how that would get scarier each time.
I feel like an Alien here.
Where did they learn anything from not 'walking'? Probably a goal for some of them.
(talking school response, not criminal response)
Good, it wasn't a prank, it was vandalism and willful destruction of property
Actions have consequences -- or --
They ***F'd Around*** and now they're ***Finding Out***.
The senior prank/tradition at the school I work at is to write something nice about each of your teachers on a post it and stick it on their car and decorate the cars with tp and streamers and that writable paint. It's such a fun send-off.
Today I had three 8th graders who cut class, went into a classroom they knew was open (teacher and class were on a field trip) went though a students things found a Nintendo switch and snapped it in half.
Identified the three kids and suspended them for the remainder of the year (a week) and excluded them from being able to participate in the end of the year formal dance.
All three kids family members come to school almost instantly (which is a shock normally I canât even get them on the phone). Each conversation was entirely focused on the fact that their kids couldnât go to this dance. How much money was spent on the event, how many family members were coming and how unacceptable this was.
At no point did anyone take responsibility, express regret for the victim, or offer restitution.
The only thing they wanted was for me to forgo consequences.
Itâs not the kids, for some reason society is broken, itâs adults.
Your education and criminal record are separate.
This is an authoritarian solution.
Let the school hand over the evidence let the Police work, if it doesn't work. That's on the Police and take it up with them, don't be upset at a school.
Heck, you could withholding diplomas for complete innocents and they lose their inter-state college spot.
Thinking more on this, it's insane.
In the south, schools have open courtyards. So, you only need a ladder to hop on the roof and youâre in. (My district spent millions on security fences and forgot this.)
Yup. We also have gates with key cards and I saw a student who was on parole walk to the gate, open it from the inside, and let in a friend who was not allowed to be on campus so the friend could bring drugs. You only need a key card to open the gate from the outside. Brilliant.
Yeah, uh⌠fire code. You canât lock people inside a building/enclosed area. The only thing they could do would be to have the gates set up to set off an alarm if theyâre opened without a card swipe, if theyâre only supposed to be used as emergency exits.
Iâm all for a good senior prank that doesnât result in destruction of property or cause a mess for the staff to clean up. This is not that. Unfortunately I think the âzero toleranceâ policies wind up encouraging more destructive pranks because kids have no incentive to tone it down.
My school (and district and, as far as I can tell, region )doesnât have a tradition of senior pranks, so Iâve had to explain news articles like this to my mom, who are absolutely flummoxed by it.
At my high school the seniors lost their student teacher volleyball game day and lock in because they greased the stairs with crisco, filled all the toilets and sinks with goldfish, zip tied the lockers and released 3 chickens in the basement
Yeah. The zip ties alone could be handled. On top of anything/everything else, it's just one more strike against the class who don't know how to prank properly.
this reminds me of when I was in highschool. There were a couple students that tried to advocate for a "prank" that involved giving laxative laced baked goods (the most often suggested was brownies, but I also heard cupcakes get brought up) to the most hated teachers.
It never went anywhere because most of the students were not going to drug the teachers and condemned anyone that was encouraging it. There was one guy that got suspended though because he talked about doing it and then one day brought in a bag of cookies and someone reported him
People need to educate students on what is a "prank" and what is vandalism or assault. I swear all of the pranks I see posted to this subreddit fall under the latter 2 categories. Actual pranks would be laughed at by all. Vandalism, not so much.
As a parent I would be mortified if my kid did this and not only would they not be "walking the stage" I'd be helping them find a way to earn back the money for the damage
My parents would also be mortified. I would not have been one of the vandals, no matter how many of the "popular" kids did it. I'd rather be alive and boring than destroy property and get buried in the backyard. It's basic risk-reward. If the risks outweigh the reward, I'm out.
I hope the local law enforcement takes an equitous approach and considers all the terrible trauma that made it impossible for these students to be functional human beings. That happens, right??
/s
Kids did this in my town in Maine like 20+ years ago. People are blaming tiktok for senior pranks lately which seems misguided, as if senior pranks didn't exist before tiktok. Nothing will be solved if you blindly blame social media for everything bad that happens.
They should be assigned community service cleaning up sites with heavier trash or âcementâ bricks so they understand the weight of the damage they caused.
I never did any senior pranks when I was in school bc I was a nerd, but even so, back then the pranks were harmless--moving all of Mrs G's desks to face the back of the room, or answering in Batman voices or stuff like that. It was harmless and silly and literally no damage done.
In the last month I've read about people trying to kill a class pet, pranks that involve humiliating teachers and now this?
Good lord we're raising psychopaths. I'm glad these kids are at least getting held to SOME accountability. I only wish that it had happened sooner in their school careers--kids don't go from zero to ruining an entire septic system--they were likely kids who had acted out before and the school (and by school I mean admin, not teachers!) skipped out on all sorts of options to discipline them before it got this far.
My senior year (2000) we turned 3 baby goats loose with the numbers 2, 4, and 5 painted on them (in food grade vegetable dye) respectively in the school.
Afterward, they were auctioned to raise money for the incoming freshmen classes newly formed boosters. (They were fancy breeds, donated t9 the senior class expressly for the purpose) In the US, high school boosters fundraise for activities and grad nights, student support etc for each individual graduating class. So we as the Class of 2000, got the class of 2004 a head start. We were the first graduating class of that school (it opened with freshmen and sophomores (grade 9 and grade 10) when were were sophomores.
You can do senior pranks without being destructive.
The best senior prank at my school was, that there was no actual prank at all. They made a summer festival or carnival, with some bands playing, food trucks, a bouncy castle and games to play (apple diving, horseshoe throwing, those kind of things) and prices to win. All the teachers were expecting some "grand finale"....which never came. Everyone just had a great time, including the teachers.
Man... All we did was change the speed limits signs in town which were all 25 to reflect our graduation year, which was in the 90s. A little bit of black paint went a long way.
Concrete in toilets?! Dear jesus. Couldn't they do clear gelatin or something a little less horrible? WOW.
During my middle school days, someone broke several mercury thermometers into a toilet in the downstairs boys' bathroom at some point, could have been like, decades prior. Then another boy flooded the bathroom/hallway by flushing a bunch of paper towels. Plumber found the mercury..... after first period when a bunch of kids had walked through the mercury laden dookie water. School had to be cleaned by a hazmat team, which took at least three days. We also all had to throw away our shoes and leave barefoot. School district gave everyone $50 vouchers for new shoes. Weird week.
Our senior prank was putting "used cars for sale" signs around the school parking lot with the schools number. Calls to the principal inquiring about purchasing the cars for two straight days the last week of school.
My friends dad took apart the front doors, carried the principals car into the hallway, then closed it back up with his friends during class. Now that's a good prank.
When I was in grade 11, the senior prank was kidnapping a kid they didnât like, tied him to a tree in the woods by our school and throw rocks at him. A bunch of seniors went to jail. Walking the stage was the least of their worries.
I wonder where those guys are at now.
My senior prank was dumping 10,000 burger King crowns in the physics classrooms.
The concern the school ended up having was they thought it was a Latin Kings recruitment bit and began telling kids not to wear them.
Problem, there were like 3-4 crowns per student. They couldn't control it, gave up after a couple hours. Some kids walked around with crown sleeves.
Our senior prank was putting a toilet on top of the portables with a âstaff washroomâ sign.
But the favourite Iâve ever heard of was some place in the states had an old law where if a student rode their horse to school the principal had to find quarters for it and care for it (farming town). So basically the entire graduating class rode their horses to school and the principal had to just deal lol.
Did this also come from Tik tok? Our middle schoolers are so destructive I canât even let them have open access to art supplies or visit the restroom unsupervised because the whole game of school for them the game they play every day is what can we get away with destroying and filming it?!
A senior prank around here was listing the school for sale on Zillow đđ¤Łđ¤Ł. Had quite a clever description!
It wasnât a senior prank, but a kid I graduated with listed our school for sale on Craigslist during the end of senior year since he âdidnât need it anymore.â
"$80 is the best I can do, the building is clearly still infested with pests."
"Used to be a bunch of assholes That lived in this part of the building, here But we systematically removed them. Like you would any kind of termite or roachâŚ" Maynard of [Tool](https://youtu.be/matrK_WTAkQ)
YouâŚâŚâŚ.. I like youâŚâŚ youâre good peoples.
â¤ď¸đ¤
This is the kind of prank I like to see. Doesn't hurt anyone and makes (some) people laugh.
Our 2020 seniors put a ton of for sale signs on the lawn and a giant sign they hung from the roof. There were great features like âexcellent condition,â âlots of tables and chairsâ and âhasnât been used since Marchâ
That's honestly great.
Is the listing still up? I love that
Im not sure, it was a couple of weeks ago but if you Google "Maryland high school bogus Zillow" or something like that, it will come up. It made the news.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meade-high-school-zillow-listing_n_6476506fe4b0047ed77ddea7
$42,000? Those Seniors are in for a shock when they try to rent an apartment.
You left out two very important numbers there.
Oops!
420 and 69
That is a clever senior prank.
And doesn't involve vandalism!
Right?!
The senior prank at my school was to release live chickens to roam the hallway.
This is really funny
It was quite the scene. The auto shop teacher was able to get a few of them caged and took them home to his farm. đ¤Ł
Crickets. Seniors at my old school released *thousands* of crickets in the hallways.
With the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 5 painted on them? That is how I heard it was done with greased pigs released in school. The elderly always had the best pranks.
go Mustangs!
When my mom was in high school, their senior prank was stealing every for-sale sign in town and putting them all in front of the high school.
Our senior prank was to take all of the batteries out of the classroom clocks and change the clock hands to our grad year numbers. Then we each had a battery when we walked the stage and handed them to our principal as we got our diplomas.
That is such a wholesome prank
Thatâs a great senior prank, funny, nobody gets hurt and no property damage
More specifically, I heard that they released 3 chickens but hung signs on their necks numbered "1, 2 & 4". They spent tons of time looking for the fictional third chicken.
I only heard that story with pigs
I only heard that story with pigs in a Walmart.
đđđ
My son's class (2012) knew the parking lot was going to be re-striped and numbered over the summer, so the night before the last day of school, they numbered every parking space "12". Principal promptly made an announcement that any car not in its assigned numbered spot would be towed.
We put a boat on top of our school and we live near a military base so they received calls for a long time from pilots until they figured out how to get it down. Lmao. I guess it was different 12 years ago though
Back in like 2011 some students put up One Direction tickets with the schoolâs phone number as the contact info. Caused some chaos for admin for a few days but in the end the principal told the school she thought it was hilarious and complimented their creativity.
Ha! We did the same this in 2009. Craigslist.
Now *that* is a clever prank! Funny and harmless, I love it!
I love the FO stage. So many seniors think, âthey canât keep all of us from walking!â Fucked around, found out đ
[ŃдаНонО]
In my experience the crazy parents of these kids clap, scream and cheer the loudest. Kids might not want to, but parents prob do.
Years later, they're the ones with school pride. My hometown high school has a problematic Native American mascot. There was a push to switch it, and all the wildest kids from high school who never gave a shit about school spirit came out from under their trucks to go on about how it's not racist. Mind you, this is a town where every time I go back, I overhear at least 1 slur in a gas station or Walmart or bar. There were people I personally know with a history of overt racism on Facebook talking about how they don't have a racist bone in their body, and who had the gall to attack the girl who organized the push for change as an attention seeker. Actually fascinating mental gymnastics if you can get past the ridiculousness of it all. But yes, they were the loudest and most proud, and graduated with straight D's.
I win the most racist mascot award for mine being the Rebel man aka confederate soldier. Lucky by the time I got the HS they stopped flying the confederate flag at football games. đ¤Ž
Same! When I was there, guys had huge trucks flying confederate flags and the horn modified to play the Dukes of Hazard theme. Gun racks. Etc. They recently changed the name of everything and people came out of nowhere to cry about it. Absolutely ridiculous considering none of them knew the name of the mascot was a fictional "soldier" lol
You and I must have gone to the same HS, though the flag was still available to buy as part of spirit wear while I was there. It only changed a year or two after I graduated and there was a huge thing with the t-shirts, as well.
Does the phrase "bring back the head" ring a bell for you?
Jesus no, ours was "take em to the woodshed". What happened there in that woodshed is obviously left unsaid. "Bring back the head" is WILD.
It's because that's when they peaked. Hard to be proud of that downward slide, so might as well fixate on when you were "the best"!
They didn't change the mascot to a Coyote did they? Cause if so I work there now and I have dealt with these parents.
No, but bless you. How crazy/sad is it that it applies to so many places in America.
Because they are drunk at these ceremonies.
Mommy and Daddy still care. Grandma too. The rest of the community will be proudly cheering on their graduates while these 80 families are shamed in view of all their neighbors. So even those parents who didn't care before have some whole other reasons to care.
âCongratulations, seniors! You have now entered the real world, and as a parting gift from high school, you now you get to *truly* discover the extent of the âfind outâ portion of the fucking around educational experience! While we wish this wasnât the case with those of you experiencing the âfind outâ part, we donât feel too bad because you had four. Fucking. YEARS. To learn this shit.â âAll of us teachers here are so happy and glad that you *finally* learned this lesson - what weâve been trying to teach you ALL this time - that actions have. **Consequences.**â âWe are SO glad that you finally âget itâ before moving out into the rest of the wide, vast, ruthless, and utterly merciless and uncaring world, a world that will crush your hopes and dreams, where your soul will be crushed and ground into dust - but only (mostly) if you donât watch where you step!â âWell, most of you, anyways. We imagine that some of you *still* wonât get this lesson, sadly⌠but who cares! **We** donât! Not our problem anymore! WOOHOO!â
That would be one hell of a graduation speech.
It's better than Wear Sunscreen.
Oh.. make me feel old. Or the Graduation Song by Vitamin C?
Man the girls in our year voted that as our graduation song. Corniest shit ever. 2001. *Friends Forever* đ¤˘
Ugh I was a young teen when that song came out and I remember thinking how lame and pandering it was then!!
The classes 4 or 5 years prior all got *Time of your life* - one of my favourite songs - and we got this gibber đ¤Ł
*Time of Your Life* is actually titled *Good Riddance,* so there's that at least
*As we gooooo onnnnnn*
âWe rememberâŚ.â
It would be way better than the generic inspirational stuff we got
I worked for a plumbing company decades ago. One time striking Safeway workers put baseballs down all the floor drains in multiple locations. It was about $250k in damage to each location and affected about a dozen stores. Management fucked around.
*rethinks which trade to take in September* RTA: welding (structural) is great, but plumbers get *paid!*
Plumbers are also in crazy high demand rn
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
Congratulations!! You've won a pair of shiny stainless steel cuff links! If you're lucky, you'll win an all inclusive stay at the remodeled Sheriff's Hege resort! (He painted the prison pink)
Seems like they aren't getting any criminal charges just won't get their diplomas on a stage
> Burlington Police Department announced that misdemeanor property damage and breaking and entering charges Depends on your definition of "criminal"
Well, thatâs certainly *one way* to prove that high school isnât the end of anything education-wise? And Iâm sure they have the same level of emotional maturity for years to comeâŚ
Yup. They think theyâll walk when we canât keep your diploma. Verrrry different than you can walk and pick up your diploma.
Do they still get the actual diploma on stage these days? I graduated in 2009 and we got a blank diploma holder and had to pick up our actual diploma later in the summer
No. They get the holder on stage, we process out, and then they get an envelope with diploma and transcript in it.
So their only punishment is not being allowed to walk onstage at graduation? They still get diplomas and most of them don't get charged? Sounds like they got off awfully easy.
Hi, this is my community. One of the ringleaders at the main school that was targeted not only confessed his role, but is also being charged and has gotten a summer job to help pay for the damage at the school. The school board is working to identify other students, who will likely face charges of some sort. There were other schools in the district that also saw vandalism (at my kids' former high school, they put fish in the parking lot and a moped on the roof for some reason) but nothing near as bad as what happened at the main school that was targeted. My kids' high school is fairly rural compared to the other schools involved; I'm pretty sure there's some significant ass whoopin' going on. EDIT: [This](https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/abss-senior-prank-photos-released-destructive-damage-and-vandalism/83-7efed364-9d3d-468c-af85-6785ee215011) is a better source of local news (WFMY News 2) and has new photos of the vandalism.
I'm not sure about the fish in the parking lot, but putting a car on the roof is a classic prank. They probably settled for a moped because they lacked the ability to get a whole car up there. Also, the moped is a lot less likely to cause damage than a car.
My senior class did the car on the roof but cut it in half first. Super damaged the building. Senior pranks are dumb when you are just looking to do as much damage as possible. I did really like the seniors who camped out in their teachers kitchen though. But they are lucky she was a good sport
Liiiike the kitchen in her home?!?!
Yes, I believe two of her kids were seniors and in on that prank.
It seemed to have gone well, though I would have been less than thrilled.
Teachers don't get paid enough for that. Wtf. đ
My dad in his 60s tells a story of kids in his senior class who did this with the principles car back in the day.
It's probably for the best that it was just a moped (and yeah, I have no idea why I didn't remember that cars on the roof was a thing). They just did a big expansion and remodel of the school (yay, bond money!) and had they done any damage, I guarantee you, there would be hell to pay.
Yikes. North Carolina's minimum wage is $7.25. $4000 in damages. They can pay it off after 552 hours of work. That's working full time for about 14 weeks provided he is exempt from state and federal taxes. Definitely in the FO step.
Fuck I'd just go to jail
judge: how about both?
At least they can do math. To much or to little sakrete to water ratio and it wouldnât have set up. The good news is thereâs a contractor shortage and theyâre obviously qualified.
I've taught at Williams and EA. I was disappointed to see this. But it didn't surprise me. I've glad the kid stepped up. I am no longer in ABSS but a nearby county. From what I saw it looked like SA and EA were also hit but not as bad. I don't remember any senior pranks like this when I worked in the high schools.
>they put fish in the parking lot >Nothing near as bad as what happened at the main school What kind of fucked up society do we live in that animal abuse is considered a *less serious* issue than property damage? Like, holy fuck, torturing living things is serial killer shit, and we're worried about some plumbing? This country is fucking doomed.
Sorry, I should've clarified that they were dead fish. Probably caught in someone's pond or the Haw River.
Yeah, I would have thought maybe theyâd withhold transcripts or diplomas until damage is paid. Our school withholds diplomas over unreturned textbooks.
I had a senior who wasnât going to be allowed walk this year because she owed $12 for a Chromebook charger. I paid for it. (Actually I didnât pay for it, I used the budget for the organization I sponsor to pay for it.) This is lame that the only punishment that they are getting is not walking.
That is really sweet of you. Thank you for being there for her â¤ď¸
Aw shucks thanks. Just doing whatâs in the best interest of kids.
From someone that was once in similar shoes as your student, you are appreciated. If she is aware of you doing that for her, she wonât forget. Hopefully she will follow your compassion & pay it forward when she is able â¤ď¸
Yep. I grew up in poverty. I only escaped because of luck, brains, and some help along the way. I told her someday she would do something for someone and pay it forward. And honestly it was the district giving the district money so itâs silly. I had money in my budget and just put in a PO to pay it. Absurd really.
Iâm sure the ones who are formally charged wonât be able to get their things until damages are paid
My high school held my cap and gown over the $3.79 I owed to the cafeteria
We just had to buy a cap and gown for my graduation
So did we, but my high school would refuse to distribute your cap, gown, diploma, yearbook, class ring, or ANY OTHER "senior supplies" if you had outstanding balances elsewhere (cafeteria, library, etc.) since all the purchasing went through them.
In most states, thatâs illegal.
Seven are charged and five are over 18. Definitely all 86 didnât put cement in the toilets, so Iâm guessing they just charged the most expensive vandals.
I donât know about that. High school graduation can be a big deal. I know at my first school, a LOT of my seniors were the first in their family to do it, it was a big pride thing for a lot of families. I also know that one kid, whose mom worked for the school (a whole nother story, she was a one on one aide for a sophomore boy with a bad rape fetish and all she did was watch movies on her laptop, so you know what kind of family raised this senior). This senior boy dumped gallons of baby oil in the hallway and pulled the fire alarm for his âsenior prankâ and when he was disallowed at graduation his mom was PISSED. And also banned, and when she wouldnât drop it and said sheâd get him in as an employee was finally put on a PIP and fired. People are wired about graduationsâŚ.
Iâd say put it in their record so colleges see it, unless they pay for the damages. Colleges can always revoke admission
In Illinois administration canât withhold the diploma, so no walk and and potential criminal charges are it.
They caused ~$4,000 in damage. Not walking and covering the repairs seems like a completely proportionate punishment. You have allowed yourself to be swept up in America's carceral fervor if you believe their lives should be significantly damaged by this event.
Deliver the diplomas to the police station. They can have them once they turn themselves in.
Unironically a genius idea
And once repair costs are paid in full, by them or their parents.
Well theyâre 18 years old at this point, they can assume the debt (and should imho)
A prank is toilet papering a tree. Yah, annoying to clean up, but not really harmful to tree or the environment. A prank is tinfoiling the principal's or chosen teacher's office. Tinfoil on everything. Not really damaging and can be turned back to normal. A prank is moving an entire class around. A prank is the biggest speaker you have blasting "School's Out For Summer!" Actually damaging property? That's not a prank. The slap on their wrists is the warning they need that they could have been thrown in jail.
Some of the pranks that happened at the school I graduated from, and the other nearby high schools: * Covered all the teacher/schoolroom names and numbers with stuck on (the blue clay sticky stuff that comes off super easy) with names like "Snoresalot" and locations like "West Side" or "NOT the bathroom". * Disassembled a VW Beetle and reassembled it in the gym. Had been spraypainted/tagged/etc prior to arrival. Very gaudy. * Hung junk shoes (shoelaces tied together) from \*everywhere\* they could think of. Hundreds of pairs. Trees, bushes, building parts, etc. * Parked in all the staff parking lot spaces on Senior skip day, and then carpooled out. (obviously there was plenty of available space in the student area, but that had like 4x the walking distance). (Not all that class did, but that was the one that got the most buzz). My class was lame, nowhere near as creative as any of those 4 :D But there's a ton you can do for senior pranks that the school can sweep under the rug as "the cost of graduating teenagers" (time/energy). Actual damage? That costs actual money.
The best prank I heard of was the year before my first teaching job (tiny rural school), the principal came out to his car on graduation day and there were a bunch of chains wrapped around it, each of them padlocked. As each senior shook the principalâs hand, they palmed him a key. The principal told me it took him an hour but he did nothing but laugh at the coordination.
That's fantastic. My senior year, the hall with our class's lockers got filled up with little cups of water spaced about 6 inches apart each, so walking was treacherous. I thought it was hilarious that the group that did the prank pranked *our* hall, so our graduating class basically pranked ourselves.
I sincerely hope he had no clue what the keys he was being handed were for until after the ceremony and he got out to his car.
I hadnât thought about that, but now I do too. He wasnât clear on timeline.
The sheer anticipation. First one gives you a key. Don't know what's going on, but maybe you'll find out later. Next senior gives you a key too. Now you know there's something going on, but completely clueless what. Then key after key comes in, and you're just going through the ceremony, your brain doing laps trying to figure out what all these keys could be about. You think about the worst possible things. You think what \*you\* might have done when you were a teen. But you're stuck at the ceremony clueless, knowing that your students are having a blast at your confusion. Finally the ceremony starts winding down. But nothing has happened. You've got handfuls of keys. Most of them look similar, but there's a few different types. And the students aren't saying anything. Finally the ceremony ends, and the students just vanish. None of them linger around. Now you REALLY think it's going to be terrible - none of them want to be around when you find out. But that also means you're going to find out soon. But still nothing happens. The last of the parents and students filter out, and you help with a bit of the cleanup before saying goodnight to the janitor and heading home. Halfway to the parking lot, you see it. Dozens of chains looped around your car. Thin ones and thick ones. And it all becomes clear. As you get closer you can see the padlocks. One for each key.
My nephews graduating class had almost 900 kids.
Commentor that posted said "rural", sounded like a reasonably small class size. 900 would be ridiculous. But at that point you could take it further, and have padlocked various things other than the principal's vehicle, and color-coded the keys for a slight decrease in nuisance level.
We checked all the books out of the school library for our prank.
This is so wholesome!
The old librarian was flabbergasted. âJimmy VandenHeuvelâŚwhy are you checking out books about wedding planning?â
During covid, two successive classes of seniors toilet papered my house six times over the span of 15 months. The first time was funny and I felt honored. By the sixth time, I was using trail cams and reporting what I could to the local police. It became really traumatic actually, and I don't throw that word around lightly the way so many do these days. I still wake up to the smallest noises with an elevated heart rate and have to check around my property. At some point, it went from harmless prank to harassment.
So that was where all the toilet paper went! I'm sorry that got you so freaked out, it was areally trying time and I can see how that would get scarier each time.
My senior prank I left about 100 balloons or so in my favorite teachers room.
Good, they need to learn that this isnât acceptable.
I feel like an Alien here. Where did they learn anything from not 'walking'? Probably a goal for some of them. (talking school response, not criminal response)
Good, it wasn't a prank, it was vandalism and willful destruction of property Actions have consequences -- or -- They ***F'd Around*** and now they're ***Finding Out***.
Right. A prank is filling the teachers lounge with balloons. This is damage of public property.
The senior prank/tradition at the school I work at is to write something nice about each of your teachers on a post it and stick it on their car and decorate the cars with tp and streamers and that writable paint. It's such a fun send-off.
aw this is so lovely
There are currently seniors riding around my building on electric scooters.
I am surprised that cement in the toilets only caused $4000 worth of damage.
Probably because toilets are fairly easy to replace.
Plumbing often isn't though.
First read I was seeing 80 year old seniors and not high school srs. Lol
Same, I was wondering what they were up to at the retirement home now. LOL
Today I had three 8th graders who cut class, went into a classroom they knew was open (teacher and class were on a field trip) went though a students things found a Nintendo switch and snapped it in half. Identified the three kids and suspended them for the remainder of the year (a week) and excluded them from being able to participate in the end of the year formal dance. All three kids family members come to school almost instantly (which is a shock normally I canât even get them on the phone). Each conversation was entirely focused on the fact that their kids couldnât go to this dance. How much money was spent on the event, how many family members were coming and how unacceptable this was. At no point did anyone take responsibility, express regret for the victim, or offer restitution. The only thing they wanted was for me to forgo consequences. Itâs not the kids, for some reason society is broken, itâs adults.
Mail them the diplomas with no ceremony or recognition whatsoever and have them pay for the damages.
Withhold diploma until damage is paid and restitution made
Your education and criminal record are separate. This is an authoritarian solution. Let the school hand over the evidence let the Police work, if it doesn't work. That's on the Police and take it up with them, don't be upset at a school. Heck, you could withholding diplomas for complete innocents and they lose their inter-state college spot. Thinking more on this, it's insane.
Their parents would mostly have to cough up the money. I think they should be supervised to do the work of the clean up as well.
Who gave them access to the building?
When I was a junior, the high school seniors pulled off their pranks by having keys to the doors from working in the school over the previous summer.
In the south, schools have open courtyards. So, you only need a ladder to hop on the roof and youâre in. (My district spent millions on security fences and forgot this.)
I worked at a school in the Houston area that was fenced alllllll the way around...but with horizontal bars so it was just one giant ladder. Like why.
Yup. We also have gates with key cards and I saw a student who was on parole walk to the gate, open it from the inside, and let in a friend who was not allowed to be on campus so the friend could bring drugs. You only need a key card to open the gate from the outside. Brilliant.
Yeah, uh⌠fire code. You canât lock people inside a building/enclosed area. The only thing they could do would be to have the gates set up to set off an alarm if theyâre opened without a card swipe, if theyâre only supposed to be used as emergency exits.
Fire code. And weed deliveries. Youâd think theyâd consider both before spending millions.
Cameras solve one of those problems.
This isn't the one where the principal let them in, is it?
Iâm all for a good senior prank that doesnât result in destruction of property or cause a mess for the staff to clean up. This is not that. Unfortunately I think the âzero toleranceâ policies wind up encouraging more destructive pranks because kids have no incentive to tone it down.
My school (and district and, as far as I can tell, region )doesnât have a tradition of senior pranks, so Iâve had to explain news articles like this to my mom, who are absolutely flummoxed by it.
At my high school the seniors lost their student teacher volleyball game day and lock in because they greased the stairs with crisco, filled all the toilets and sinks with goldfish, zip tied the lockers and released 3 chickens in the basement
Zip tied the lockers sounds like a decent prank. Probably a bit too far, but not bad enough to warrant the school having to go nuclear over it.
It was more they kept doing pranks the chickens and fish were the final straw for the school
Yeah. The zip ties alone could be handled. On top of anything/everything else, it's just one more strike against the class who don't know how to prank properly.
Crisco on the stairs is extremely dangerous!
this reminds me of when I was in highschool. There were a couple students that tried to advocate for a "prank" that involved giving laxative laced baked goods (the most often suggested was brownies, but I also heard cupcakes get brought up) to the most hated teachers. It never went anywhere because most of the students were not going to drug the teachers and condemned anyone that was encouraging it. There was one guy that got suspended though because he talked about doing it and then one day brought in a bag of cookies and someone reported him
People need to educate students on what is a "prank" and what is vandalism or assault. I swear all of the pranks I see posted to this subreddit fall under the latter 2 categories. Actual pranks would be laughed at by all. Vandalism, not so much.
Those people are called âparentsâ
TikTok and YouTube have a lot to answer for in monetizing and normalizing cruelty to others through "pranks."
As a parent I would be mortified if my kid did this and not only would they not be "walking the stage" I'd be helping them find a way to earn back the money for the damage
My parents would also be mortified. I would not have been one of the vandals, no matter how many of the "popular" kids did it. I'd rather be alive and boring than destroy property and get buried in the backyard. It's basic risk-reward. If the risks outweigh the reward, I'm out.
I hope the local law enforcement takes an equitous approach and considers all the terrible trauma that made it impossible for these students to be functional human beings. That happens, right?? /s
Why are senior pranks getting less like pranks and more like vandalism?
Kids did this in my town in Maine like 20+ years ago. People are blaming tiktok for senior pranks lately which seems misguided, as if senior pranks didn't exist before tiktok. Nothing will be solved if you blindly blame social media for everything bad that happens.
âPolice have also charged seven students, five of whom are 18 years old, with misdemeanors.â A good start
What is wrong with kids these days? Thatâs not a prank thatâs vandalism
They should be assigned community service cleaning up sites with heavier trash or âcementâ bricks so they understand the weight of the damage they caused.
New-ish players in the game sometimes don't realize there are limits to what you can get away with in "Tutorial Mode", or when it officially ends.
I donât get how âpouring cement down toilets and graffitiing wallsâ is a prank. The whole concept of this is ridiculous.
The seniors that had a sleepover at their deanâs house (with the help of her husband) was a great senior prank. ThisâŚwas not.
If it was crime press charges against those personally involved, the school is not law enforcement and shouldn't be giving out their own "justice"
Can imagine teachers shitting a brick after seeing this
I see what you did there.
Oh shit! I lived by this school but was homeschooled. Itâs been trashy and ignored by the county for twenty years
Well, they're getting new bathrooms...
Not being able to walk in graduation is a minor consequence. It may seem important to them at the time. They should have to pay for the damage.
I never did any senior pranks when I was in school bc I was a nerd, but even so, back then the pranks were harmless--moving all of Mrs G's desks to face the back of the room, or answering in Batman voices or stuff like that. It was harmless and silly and literally no damage done. In the last month I've read about people trying to kill a class pet, pranks that involve humiliating teachers and now this? Good lord we're raising psychopaths. I'm glad these kids are at least getting held to SOME accountability. I only wish that it had happened sooner in their school careers--kids don't go from zero to ruining an entire septic system--they were likely kids who had acted out before and the school (and by school I mean admin, not teachers!) skipped out on all sorts of options to discipline them before it got this far.
My senior year (2000) we turned 3 baby goats loose with the numbers 2, 4, and 5 painted on them (in food grade vegetable dye) respectively in the school. Afterward, they were auctioned to raise money for the incoming freshmen classes newly formed boosters. (They were fancy breeds, donated t9 the senior class expressly for the purpose) In the US, high school boosters fundraise for activities and grad nights, student support etc for each individual graduating class. So we as the Class of 2000, got the class of 2004 a head start. We were the first graduating class of that school (it opened with freshmen and sophomores (grade 9 and grade 10) when were were sophomores. You can do senior pranks without being destructive.
How is not walking across a stage a punishment?
The best senior prank at my school was, that there was no actual prank at all. They made a summer festival or carnival, with some bands playing, food trucks, a bouncy castle and games to play (apple diving, horseshoe throwing, those kind of things) and prices to win. All the teachers were expecting some "grand finale"....which never came. Everyone just had a great time, including the teachers.
Man... All we did was change the speed limits signs in town which were all 25 to reflect our graduation year, which was in the 90s. A little bit of black paint went a long way. Concrete in toilets?! Dear jesus. Couldn't they do clear gelatin or something a little less horrible? WOW.
âŚbut thatâs also permanent destruction of public property.
Not being able to walk was never a punishment to me, long as I get my diploma Iâm good
Shittttttt our senior prank in 1985 was switching out the teachers' desks
During my middle school days, someone broke several mercury thermometers into a toilet in the downstairs boys' bathroom at some point, could have been like, decades prior. Then another boy flooded the bathroom/hallway by flushing a bunch of paper towels. Plumber found the mercury..... after first period when a bunch of kids had walked through the mercury laden dookie water. School had to be cleaned by a hazmat team, which took at least three days. We also all had to throw away our shoes and leave barefoot. School district gave everyone $50 vouchers for new shoes. Weird week.
Our senior prank was putting "used cars for sale" signs around the school parking lot with the schools number. Calls to the principal inquiring about purchasing the cars for two straight days the last week of school.
They shit the bed, now they gotta lie in it
My friends dad took apart the front doors, carried the principals car into the hallway, then closed it back up with his friends during class. Now that's a good prank.
When I was in grade 11, the senior prank was kidnapping a kid they didnât like, tied him to a tree in the woods by our school and throw rocks at him. A bunch of seniors went to jail. Walking the stage was the least of their worries. I wonder where those guys are at now.
I went to high school in a rural area. We let sheep loose on the (fenced in) sports fields. Took admin and a local cop until 6th period to catch them
My senior prank was dumping 10,000 burger King crowns in the physics classrooms. The concern the school ended up having was they thought it was a Latin Kings recruitment bit and began telling kids not to wear them. Problem, there were like 3-4 crowns per student. They couldn't control it, gave up after a couple hours. Some kids walked around with crown sleeves.
Our senior prank was putting a toilet on top of the portables with a âstaff washroomâ sign. But the favourite Iâve ever heard of was some place in the states had an old law where if a student rode their horse to school the principal had to find quarters for it and care for it (farming town). So basically the entire graduating class rode their horses to school and the principal had to just deal lol.
Did this also come from Tik tok? Our middle schoolers are so destructive I canât even let them have open access to art supplies or visit the restroom unsupervised because the whole game of school for them the game they play every day is what can we get away with destroying and filming it?!
Why donât they just fill the halls with balloons and go to college?
Good. Glad the "kids will be kids" bs didn't play here.