Apparently senior pranks are now a crime, including the non-destructive, non-harm-inducing ones.
Posted on 05/08/2012 7:22:20 AM PDT by Domandred
25 Mountain View High School students face misdemeanor charges for a senior prank they pulled late Sunday night.
One senior said Monday, she and her fellow classmates are being treated unfairly by the district.
“Everyone participates in senior pranks,” said Arica Nitz. “It’s not meant to cause any damage or harm.”
A group of seniors formed a Facebook page sometime ago to decide on this year’s senior prank.
“The plan was to sticky note the hallways, the doors, the windows, the lockers just sticky note everywhere. Just colorful hallways down every hallway,” said Nitz.
The seniors also brought along some zip ties and bound the handles of the lockers.
However, Sunday around midnight, Meridian Police officers were tipped off to the prank and arrived at Mountain View High School to take control of the situation.
“It was just kind of scary,” said Nitz. “We didn't expect it to be so blown out of proportion.”
Deputy Chief Tracy Basterrechea with the Meridian Police Department said when officers arrived on scene some students fled on foot, others hid inside the school while others were detained inside.
“What started off as your typical senior prank then got a little bit out of hand,” said Basterrechea.
25 students were handed misdemeanor citations for malicious injury to property and unlawful entry of a building.
Officers also found vegetable oil doused over an upstairs hallway.
“When you start damaging people's property you have gone way beyond the limits,” said Basterrechea.
Nitz told KTVB Monday, that was not in the original senior prank plan.
“It got blown out of proportion because we only did the sticky notes and zip ties, the oil that got spilled down the hallways was done by one kid,” she said.
Nitz’s mother Carolyn feels the intention of the students is innocent.
“Being cited for malicious injury to property, I think it’s a little excessive on the school's part,” she said.
However the Meridian School District feels the damage done to the school can’t go unpunished.
Initially the students helped clean up the mess, but district custodians were needed to help clean up the rest. Also, the students were let access to the building from the key of a faculty member.
“There was a statement made that they got it from a staff member now we have to investigate that,” said Eric Exline, a spokesperson for the Meridian School District.
This time of year, all around the Treasure Valley, senior pranks are expected. Seniors at Eagle High School recently covered their hallways with 24,000 cups of water. They filmed it and placed it on YouTube.
Joel Matheson and Joe Adams said it is a tradition of all seniors.
“We were talking about it the whole year, really,” said Matheson.
While they won't reveal how they got inside, Matheson and Adams said they realize a prank can't go too far.
“There is a fine line that you have to make sure you don’t cross. No vandalism,” said Adams.
But Mountain View seniors didn't mean to go too far, either.
“We didn't want any vandalism happening because we didn't want any chances of anything bad happening,” Nitz said.
While they face charges, Nitz said other Meridian district seniors who have also done pranks this year, have not been charged. “It’s just a bummer for everyone, it’s just shocking to us because we had worse senior pranks throughout the Treasure Valley in different high schools that have happened and no charges have been done to them.”
“It's a case by case basis but my advice to kids is don't do anything that is breaking the law,” said Exline.
Meridian School District has not decided if the seniors involved, will be banned from attending other senior activities.
The students could face a maximun punishment of a $1000 fine and possible jail time
Apparently senior pranks are now a crime, including the non-destructive, non-harm-inducing ones.
THEY'RE FRICKIN' STICKY NOTES, YOU IDIOT!
No levity allowed in the new america! Nein!
My daughters class dropped 2012 little bouncy balls from the second floor atrium. When the cleaning crew arrived, they were all gone (scarfed up by under classmen).
The rest? Sticky notes on lockers warrants calling out the cops? Are they insane?
Sticky notes are not “criminal damage.” Please. OTOH, being in the building after midnight, there’s not much they can do about charges of unlawful entry (even if they used a staff member’s key).
If the school and local authorities had any common sense, they’d just sentence the kids to a Saturday of hard cleaning and beautification work around the school campus and be done with it. Talking about criminal charges for sticky notes (and even vegetable oil) is just out of hand.
}:-)4
I bet if his La Raza pals did it, he wouldn’t have minded one bit.
There is so much wrong with this country.
If you want to know about malicious senior pranks, you should have run with my crowd back in ‘63.
When you cannot administrate - be a PUBLIC SCHOOL administrator.
When you cannot teach - be a PUBLIC SCHOOl teacher.
When you cannot do anything - be a democrat.
Oops, lost the thrust there.......
Getting back to schools, the word is PRIVATE SCHOOL - where the fools aren’t.
There is so much wrong with this country.
If you want to know about malicious senior pranks, you should have run with my crowd back in ‘63.
There is so much wrong with this country.
If you want to know about malicious senior pranks, you should have run with my crowd back in ‘63.
At Xavier HS (a Jesuit/military school in NYC) in 1966, a teacher’s Cooper Mini found its way up the steps from the street to the lobby.
In the early 1940s my dad and some friends tied up a mule in the girl’s bathroom one halloween night. They just wanted to scare the girls the next day. However, the mule got loose and went all over the school letting loose a flood of diarrhea and dragging it around with the rope. School was cancelled the next day and the next day an assembly was called with the mayor, the sheriff and several local preachers. Speeches were made and the students were urged to confess. No one ever did until many years later.
I guess they should have used spray paint...
This country has gone mad.
Apparently, Mountain View has too many police officers and too little crime. Perhaps they should reduce the force by 50% and save the school district’s taxpayers a bundle. Then perhaps the 50% that were still employed would tell the busy-bodies who call in non-crimes such as this that this is not a police matter but a school administrator’s problem.
HA!!! We did that too (1986). VP had a LeCar and we put it in the hallway outdside the locker rooms and filled it with ballons. It was AWESOME!
Every now and then at Gonzaga Univ., a VW Beetle was parked in front of the doors of the Crosby Library.
Regarding the prank in question, if the sticky notes were made from recycled paper, then it's no big deal IMHO. ;^)
Not insane,, they just have the intellect that is now a non optional requirement to work for the public schools
A manure spreader (large farm implement) was brought into the main administrative building and placed in front of the entrance of the chapel.
At the time the college was primarily teachers, church workers, and pre-seminary students!
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