Senior pranks _ where do you draw the line?
by Martha Irvine
AP News
June 6, 2012

Chicago (AP) – Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to stash a dead fish somewhere to stink up the school hallways. Time to drop tennis balls on the heads of people in the lobby. Time to cover your soon-to-be alma mater with Post-It notes.

For high school seniors, it’s prank time – or “structured mayhem” in the words of Mindy Utay, a therapist who works with teens.

It’s a rite of passage as graduation looms, mostly harmless fun but sometimes a escalating into vandalism. This spring alone, windows at school have been smashed, walls and sidewalks spray painted, and paint poured down steps. Cars have been flipped. Property has been damaged from California to Kentucky to Maryland.

As a result, school administrators are rethinking exactly what constitutes a prank and where to draw the line – and finding that’s not always easy to do.

[Read on and watch Brigham Young University pranksters turn their friends’ living room into an Easter basket] (more…)

EXCLUSIVE: UCSD: Best Prank Ever
by Walter Mencken
San Diego Reader
November 17, 2011

Senior Class Fabricates Existence of Korean “Artist,” Cons Stuart Collection into Hanging House Off Edge of Seven-Story Building.

Stuart Collection Curator Attempts to Save Face: “Actually, joke’s on them: this prank is so genius that it ascends to the level of art. We’re proud to feature it in our collection.”

High-Fiving All ‘Round, UCSD – “It’s over,” says UCSD Senior Amanda Terwilliger. “Everybody can just stop planning their pranks now, because nobody is ever going to top this. Not, the noose, not the shoe, not the paisley, not even the April Fools’ acceptance email.”

Terwilliger was referring to the installation of “Fallen Star,” the latest addition to the University’s prestigious and silly Stuart Collection of Artistic Oddities. (more…)

Senior pranks aren’t what they used to be
by Laurel Walker
jsonline.com
June 9, 2009

Oh, for the good ol’ days – when senior pranks were really clever and memorable, and when school administrators had the audacity to admire the good ones.

For all the hubbub those so-called pranks at Arrowhead and Brookfield East high schools produced last weekend – with different outcomes – I couldn’t help but long for a jaw-dropping, “how’d they ever do that?” caper. Harmlessness, above all else, must be a condition of the truly good prank, as should anonymity.

One of the best I remember was in June 1997 at Brookfield East High School, when someone managed to hoist a Pontiac 6000 overhead and parked it atop the school’s steel entry canopy. Among the worst, also at Brookfield East in 2004, students without an ounce of creativity thought an all-out food fight and dumping human feces on the floor made for a fine senior moment.

By comparison, the stunts that got the Waukesha County students in trouble last week were harmless enough, tame if not lame. (more…)

Stiff punishment “not being allowed to walk during graduation.” They’d better put that car back together so at least they can drive…

Senior Prank
Bits & Pieces.com
May 2, 2009

Students at a Western Colorado High School arrived Thursday morning to find a car wrapped around the school”™s flag pole.

The car was cut in half and welded around the bottom of the flag pole, as a senior prank.

School officials say it”™s pretty creative, but are asking students to use their best judgment when attempting a prank.

“We don”™t want anything malicious, we don”™t want anything that singles out a person or our school in a negative way. We don”™t want anything that does permanent damage,” said Jody Mimmack, school principal.

Officials say the students responsible for the prank could face punishment, including not being allowed to walk during their graduation ceremony.