A rumor flooded the senior commons, group chats, and classrooms last week that school security and Lake Forest Police were looking inside student cars for Nerf guns— and if one was found, the student would face expulsion from LFHS.

Seniors in first period classes rushed to hide their Nerf guns so they wouldn’t be visible through their car windows. 

“When I heard I could be expelled from school for having a purple Nerf gun in my front seat, I was horrified,” senior Lulu Keil said. 

Dean Laura Clegg, however, told The Forest Scout the administration is not looking to expel anyone, but they want student to remember that Nerf guns are just not allowed on school property.

“The rule is—and has always been—that no Nerf guns (or any kind of gun: real or fake) are allowed on school property, whether that is in your backpack, your car, your hand, etc. It is a policy in the handbook, a level four offense, that if broken, recommends serious school consequences,” Clegg said.  “Someone pulled a Nerf gun out of their backpack in front of me in the lower commons the other day. This is against the rules, and we are trying to inform you of the rules so you can have fun.”

The Paranoia Game is a grade-wide Nerf gun battle where teams of six to eight face off for a week. The goal is to “eliminate” all members of the opposing team. Each person “killed” with a Nerf bullet is five points for your team. 

Over the last few years, communities nationwide have been trying to prevent the game from happening after an increase in accidents, arrests, and even shootings. 

The 2025 Paranoia rules do state: “East/West campuses are always out of bounds. Anyone caught eliminating on school grounds will be disqualified.” But many students weren’t aware that this included their cars. 

The issue came to the Deans’ attention when the security team, who check the senior lot for passes every day noticed a large number of Nerf guns in plain sight in their car. 

“We saw 10-15 cars alone with Nerf guns piled in the front. This is against the rules, and we are just trying to keep the seniors safe,” Clegg said.

Security ran the license plates so the school could talk to these individual students. However, they then decided to make an announcement to all seniors so they wouldn’t make the same mistake. 

“We wrote a note for Mrs. Hektor to read to all senior study halls to let them know the rule of not having nerf guns in your backpack or cars. Again, we are not trying to expel you; we just want you to be careful,” said Clegg. 

This includes West Campus, too.

Similarly, Keil is not the only senior who has this exact reaction. It seemed like a large majority of seniors had the same opinion on the matter.

Student reaction has been mixed.

“I was a bit confused about why it was so serious. It’s a NERF GUN— you can’t really hurt anyone with it. It is definitely not fair, especially because I didn’t get a warning email last night, so I didn’t even know until I showed up to school today and was worried that my plate was scanned and I would be expelled,” senior Brenden Walsh said. 

The school did try to get the word out ahead of time so this situation wouldn’t happen. Social worker Mrs. Harmsen and  Principal Dr. Lenart both sent out emails. 

“We didn’t know what else to do besides verbally warning the seniors. We’re just trying to get the word out to be careful,” Clegg said. 

In the handbook, expulsion is the consequence that can be put into action for this matter. The Deans have made it clear they aren’t looking or wanting to expel anyone, they just want to keep the seniors’ fun safe.  

“We didn’t think this was gonna be such a hot topic, we were just trying to keep seniors out of trouble,” Clegg said.