Some Final Mischief: A look at senior pranks

By Jacob J

Why have they gotten boring? Why have people lost the drive to prank? Why are we lame? 

All these questions revolve around senior pranks… happening every year, students who are about to leave give a final farewell to their administration,, often leaving a sometimes outrageous mess to clean up. But the pranks have been quite boring for all the years I have been in attendance. For example, in 2022, thousands of plastic forks were placed on the lawn right side up. 2023 students wrote with Sharpies over quite a few of the lockers, which is vandalism. Last year 2024, students put all the chairs in the hallways. 

Harmless pranks, but so boring that you could walk into the school and fall asleep. Why can't we see or experience what it is meant to be like in high school? Well, there might be a few answers! In a conversation with Mr. Davis, a science teacher, he noted that back in 2014 students were gifted the horse statue that sits out front of the school's main entrance. Roughly a week later a group of kids wrapped a toe hitch strap around the horse and tried to dislodge it, resulting in 10k-20k in damages. So yes there is a bit of that fear that someone might get expelled and or jail time for slipping up. Or at the very least, according to Mrs. Hansen's words “They won't get to walk”. Obviously his is a big issue for anyone who wants to commit to the senior prank and still graduate; yes they still do graduate but they won't be at the actual ceremony. 

Taking a deeper look at what students want to see happen, one student said he would enjoy seeing the school full of balloons. Another student said she just didn't want to be bored for one day at school. Funny enough as it is, three other students said something similar to the nature of not leaning on boring school pranks. Most of the students barely get to even see the pranks that occurred. At least some students believed that the recent vandalization of the school windows would have been a senior prank. As devious as it may be, some do infer that students can commit acts of breaking windows just for a stupid prank. But can we do something fun and interesting that doesn’t cause damage or break the law?

So farewell to the class of 2025 in less than two months. Let your pranks be great, not as devious as broken windows or horse statues ripped off their foundations. But give us a show and leave your mark on the school.