Cops caution grad pranksters

The North Vancouver RCMP are treating as serious an anonymous email urging several North Van high schools to outdo one another in the run-up to grad season, traditionally home to pranks.

“We’ll treat it as legitimate until it has been proven otherwise,” Cpl. Richard De Jong told The Province. “Overtones of potential illicit, illegal behaviour are being taken very seriously by both the North Vancouver School District No. 44 and the North Vancouver RCMP.”

De Jong said the inter-school challenge has been spread by social media, and he reminded young people that Internet infamy never goes away.

“If it appears dangerous and illegal, common sense should prevail,” said De Jong. “Be safe. One bad decision could last your whole life.”

In 2008, a celebrating West Van Secondary grad was critically injured when he stuck his head out of a car window and hit a post.

A year earlier, also in West Van, police attending an unsupervised grad party near Westport Road were subjected to about 50 drunken youths who hurled rocks and smashed the front and rear windows of two police cruisers.