Going out in style

When not destructive, senior pranks can bring levity, excitement to end of year

Seniors “crashed” a car into the wall of the principal’s office in Cumberland, Wis., this month.

Not long ago in Santa Fe, some seniors “kidnapped” a teacher and forced him to listen to the reading of boring novels.

Perhaps just as bad, some seniors once listed a school property for sale on Craigslist, and the principal took calls asking about the deal all day long.

Don’t panic. These were all just senior pranks.

It’s hard to keep track of just how long the trashing of the lockers and saran-wrapping of the toilets has been such an important tradition to uphold. But looking forward to the senior prank every year brings a little excitement to the end-of-the-year routine.

While many administrators are not fond of the annual senior prank, counselor and teacher Matthew Burritt of the Santa Fe Waldorf School said that as long as pranks don’t cause destruction, they can be all in good fun: “A good quality prank doesn’t target any particular individual or subject. It is conducted in a manner that is lighthearted and with obvious care for the school, as opposed to damaging or harmful to the school or a person.”

Burritt also understands the fun in pulling a prank, and he, too, has pulled a few on his students: “My best prank as a teacher was for April Fools’ Day. I was giving the 10th-grade class their final physics exam, but instead of giving them the 10th-grade exam, I gave them the one meant for the 11th grade. I didn’t try to hide it: The test

very clearly said ‘11th-grade physics’ at the top, but it took them at least seven minutes to figure it out. I thought it was hilarious.”

Senior pranks also provide an opportunity for seniors to come together and have a bit of fun at the school’s expense before they go their separate ways. “Senior pranks will never be outdated,” said Kayla Garcia, a junior at St. Michael’s High School. “It’s kind of a tradition all schools have as a final goodbye that brings a few laughs.”

Despite the fun that can be had with senior pranks, the tradition hasn’t necessarily improved with time. Some grandparents and parents might suggest that the current generation does not pull off senior pranks quite as well as they did. “I think that senior pranks were definitely done better back in the day,” says Matthew Legits, a senior at St. Michael’s High School. “It just seemed like in terms of bonding, bonding was a lot more important to them in that generation, and that made the pranks so much more fun.”

About 30 years ago, for example, a senior class in Phoenix bought 10,000 business cards that read “Class of 1985” and hid them everywhere. The cards, hidden in tiles, library books and lockers, are still occasionally found today. A well-known senior prank from St. Michael’s took place in the 1980s, when seniors dumped horse manure on the field as their final goodbye to the Horsemen.

Among other iconic senior pranks that made headlines: In Tampa Bay, Fla., a senior class slowly unscrewed nails from every item in the school and turned in a bucket of nails to the principal at the end of the year. Another trend includes sticking as many plastic forks into the football field as it can hold.

However humorous, if going through

with a senior prank, you must be prepared for the repercussions. Many teens argue that the laughs are worth the risk.

“It depends on the severity of the prank, but in most cases I think the humor is most definitely worth the punishment,” Garcia said. “If you think about it, the seniors are nearly done with the school. The administration can’t do anything about it. They can’t even give them a detention.”

Though this may seem like the case, many school administrations have threatened to suspend pranksters for the remainder of the school year, and they have threatened to withhold diplomas. Some teens also have suffered injuries from not-so-harmless pranks. According to the Los Angeles Times, a teenage girl was hurt when a group of students knocked her to the ground during a food fight, which was started by upperclassmen, at her high school.

And seniors who thought it would be fun to cover all the door handles in their school with peanut butter were aghast to discover that some of their classmates were allergic to peanuts, leading to illness and days of missed school.

Call them destructive, harmless or hilarious, but senior pranks likely will remain an annual tradition at many high schools. Janitors have to clean them up, administrators might loathe them, but for outgoing seniors, there is no denying the challenge and the thrill tied to a great senior prank. Generation Next reporter Hannah Abram contributed to this story.

Sofia Ortiz is a student at St. Michael’s High School. Contact her at sofiagoesgreen10@gmail.com.