The senior prank has became a staple within the high school culture of America. Coming into high school, you hear of such pranks–whether it be the tree-planting on the baseball field that caused both drama and serious trouble for the perpetrators–and it shocks you. But the closer you get to senior year, everyone has a feeling that they can pull off the prank that toes the line of both humor and savvy intelligence. Lake Forest High School has had a history with senior pranks and I talked with two of the three deans, Mr. Lesniak and Mrs. Clegg, about the issue at hand
Mr. Lesniak brought a strong message across, as he stated, “For me, senior pranks are what many seniors think are a rite of passage, but I think they are silly. As long as they do not cause disruption in the flow of the day and are not illegal. For example, causing traffic or putting stuff on the front lawn that others have to clean up.” A past prank that we talked about occurred during my sophomore year. The seniors brought squirt guns and blocked people from being dropped off, which caused a massive back up on McKinley road. When participating in a senior prank, students often think it is not directly affecting or offending people, but in almost every instance it will. The custodial staff that cleans up and takes care of this beautiful, wonderful institution doesn’t need anymore unnecessary work. Mr. Lesniak concluded our conversation by saying, “The tradition has been around since I was in high school and even prior to that, I get the tradition and I understand it. But you don’t want to cause problems.”
Mrs. Clegg also has a very strong stance on the issue as she brought to my attention that it is her least favorite day of the year for multiple reasons. “It is extremely upsetting. We love our seniors and the seniors love the school. It baffles me that our seniors would want to disrupt the school in any way shape or form, and the thing that upsets me the most is that this disruption within the school tends to affect the custodial staff who do so much for us.”
Personally, I have always been a proponent for this idea but in talking to both of these deans and understanding both their viewpoints as the school’s disciplinarians and how it affects the school and the community, I might have to take a step back and rethink the whole idea. Mrs. Clegg finally stated, “We have an amazing staff of unsung heroes and those are the ones who clean up and take care of our whole school. You shouldn’t have to ruin their day for something that people may think is harmless”
My final takeaway from this is that no matter how harmless you think a prank will be, it tends to be more troublesome than written on paper. It can affect the town, our sports teams, or our school staff, and in the end, we have to consider if it’s really worth it.
