When done in moderation, school pranks can be fun
Senior Prank Day may not be an official school event, but students in the UAE have learned to make the best of it over the years.
The day is popular across American schools, where students — mainly seniors — prank their teachers and other faculty members a few weeks before graduation.
The pranks could be lighthearted and some end up being extreme, where students get suspended or even expelled. Some classic ones include flooding the gymnasium floor with water, filling the hallways with sand and setting rat traps in classrooms. Some schools really discourage Senior Prank Day, while others prepare for the worst.
In the UAE, students across different schools have adopted Senior Prank Day and spoke to Khaleej Times about some of their most memorable pranks on faculty. Most of them aren’t as extreme as ones that make international headlines — none that we know of so far, at least.
Arun Sinnamari, a student in Fujairah, had his teacher arrested by the campus security over false accusations that he had stolen a motorbike — all in the name of a senior prank.
“One of our best pranks was when the seniors had our principal arrested with the help of our school security and we recorded it all. The officer managed to convince the principal that his motorcycle was stolen property and that, since he was claiming ownership of it, he would have to go to the station in handcuffs to answer to the cops,” Sinnamari said.
Another prank he pulled along with his senior class was when they turned one of his school hallway into a beach, a ‘classic’ prank. “We set up huge tree branches and plants all over the hall and we even installed working fountains. We blasted music and set up umbrellas and beach chairs. None of us went to class all day — we just enjoyed ourselves with kiddie pools and a volleyball/badminton net,” he said.
Another Dubai student, Angelica Smith (name has been changed as she will be carrying out her senior prank next week), wants to try something “funny”.
Smith and her peers are going to roast her teacher in front of the entire school body. “My grad class is really set on not doing anything harmful or hurtful to the school or teachers, but something funny. We have a decoy where we give each teacher a cupcake and the icing will basically stain their teeth and then they’ll think our prank is over. The next day, at the Sunday assembly, we are going to hijack the AV system and instead of the PowerPoint, we are going to play a roast song video of our teachers and stuff about our school,” she said. “While this is happening, all the seniors are going to cover the teachers in silly string.”
After the teachers and students return to class, they plan to set the alarm clocks in the school ceiling to go off in six classrooms.
Senior pranking seems to have come of age in the UAE.
We set up huge tree branches and plants all over the hall and even installed working fountains. We blasted music, set up umbrellas and beach chairs and had fun.” Arun Sinnamari, student in Fujairah