The senior prank is the epitome of senior year. The seniors have all decided where they are going to college and their time in high school is coming to end, so what is there to lose, right? Wrong. At Cherry Hill East seniors don’t participate in any out of control pranks for the consequences that would entail would not make the prank worth it.

Mr. Falat, a Chemistry teacher at East, has never seen any type of huge senior prank during his time at East.

“I think that the students know that the administration would really come down on them if they did anything too out of control. It’s just not worth it,” Falat says.

Although seniors at East are not playing the biggest pranks, seniors throughout other regions are saying goodbye to their high school years with a bang.

In Santa Barbara, CA, a group of students decided to give their principal a “special send-off”. They hired a mariachi band to follow their principal,  John Becchio, as he walked around the school for an hour and a half. A YouTube video of the prank has gone viral and was even featured on the “Today” show.  Upon entering his office the previous day, Becchio saw that all of his belongings had been shrink-wrapped by students.

Nonetheless, Highland High School in New Mexico has a drastically different opinion on senior pranks than that of Cherry Hill East. On the high school’s website, a whole page is dedicated to recalling all of the school’s senior pranks. Recently, the seniors of Highland High painted Del Norte High School’s mascot pink and dressed Albuquerque High School’s bulldog as a flapper.  The football team also moved the principal’s VW Beatle from the teachers’ parking lot to the gym steps. Some other pranks performed by the school in past years were, super gluing all the locks and placing pipe bombs (made of dry ice, water, and paint) in trash cans which blew up, spraying yellow and blue paint all over.

The seniors at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach used a lot of saran wrap in their senior prank by creating a tower of desks and chairs. Each classroom had its own towering display. The students had permission to be in building; no one was hurt and it did not take long to put the desks and chairs back where they belong. However, not every senior prank has  successful results.

Varina High School in Virginia had nearly a dozen students arrested and charged in connection to the senior prank, which left the school in absolute disarray.  Chocolate sauce, syrup, flour and eggs were thrown onto numerous exterior areas of the school. Trashcans were dumped and placed on the roofs of several buildings, and permanent marker was used to write on doors and walls. The police and school officials identified the suspects and charged the seniors with felony vandalism and misdemeanor trespassing.

Another senior prank went wrong at California High School in San Ramon, California, when one student was injured. Seniors at the school jammed locks with toothpicks, sprayed water and Silly String, threw water balloons in the cafeteria and ditched their fifth period classes to storm the pool complex, with some actually jumping in the water. During all this, one senior was injured and required medical attention. Principal Mark Corti had to call in the district maintenance team, San Ramon police and the San Ramon Swim Center staff for assistance.

Senior pranks are a long endured high school tradition. Some would say that the senior prank is just a harmless, fun way for seniors to end their high school careers, while others would say the senior prank is a disrespectful and rude disruption to the school. Either way, for now, East has kept it’s pranks to a minimal degree.