<p>^Probably the poor janitor who had to spend hours cleaning up the mess in the parking lot had a problem with it. We’ve been TPed and H was NOT amused. </p>
<p>Kids are now TPing strangers’ homes. I certainly don’t agree with that.</p>
<p>that kind of stunt could get those students admission at MIT. </p>
<p>this is a very serious matter</p>
<p>Then instead of suspending these students, let them clean it up.</p>
<p>How completely ridiculous. They shouldn’t have been suspended at all. They didn’t damage anything. They even left refreshments! Some people have no sense of humor.</p>
<p>They CERTAINLY did not deserve $300 fines for “disorderly conduct.” What a load of hooey.</p>
<p>notice how the school’s administration had no comment. they, in fact, did not make the decision to punish the students. it was the school system’s brass.</p>
<p>tools.</p>
<p>“barring these young men from their once-in-a-lifetime graduation ceremony is too harsh a penalty for this harmless prank”</p>
<p>I disagree with this Mom of a kid that thought he could get away with this. How many of you, if asked what the likely punishment for this prank would be, would have said ‘oh go ahead and stick something on the school roof - the most that they will do is assess a fine’?</p>
<p>The schools ought to spell out the fact that entering the school, or climbing on or over the school, is disallowed, for people too dense to imagine otherwise.</p>
<p>And I have to wonder how many supporters there would be for bottom-of-the-class offenders?</p>
<p>I’d support any of’em. And I’d’ve been proud of my own if he/she’d pulled it off successfully. Gosh, we are trying to raise compliant little citizens these days.</p>
<p>sounds like a creative hack and as the above poster said-worthy of MIT-they should have to sponsor a fundraiser for a local playground or donate a really nice swing set to a local day care center-I think they should speak at graduation too!</p>
<p>Harmless? Perhaps. But, think a moment…what if something had gone horribly wrong? Classes are not held on the roof, for obvious reasons and the kids used a ladder to gain access. Looks like fun… but, what if one of those boys were your son, a bright, vibrant young man who was laughing and teasing a sibling at the dinner table, and a couple of hours later was lying still in a hospital bed, hooked to machines helping him breathe because he is paralyzed from the neck down. Would you hire a lawyer and sue the school district? Don’t rush to answer, just imagine the whooshing sound of the machine, something that he may need for years since he will never rise from a bed and walk on his own again.
OK, it didn’t happen, thank God or whomever you wish, but, areas are off limits for a reason. Without rules we have anarchy and those rules have to start somewhere. Would you be happy if those same kids had been parading around on your roof in the middle of the night, never mind building something up there? Would you tell them to come down,since they might hurt themselves or damage your home? If one broke through your roof and it required repair, I have a strong feeling that you’d be expecting his family to pony up for the bill.
The kids were unhurt, nothing was damaged, but so much could have gone wrong and if it had, human nature is to look to lay blame and chances are, not one of those parents would have accepted that harm came to their son because their own actions. Lawyers would be hired, harsh words exchanged and money would have been taken from the school budget to pay for legal expenses incurred. All would be losers. It’s fine to look back and laugh now, but everyone be viewing this “prank” differently if it had ended up in the local emergency room.</p>
<p>I don’t have to stop and think longer. I sure hope that the whoosh of a machine at a hospital bed doesn’t automatically lead to the hiring of lawyers. I can tell you it wouldn’t for me. Lawsuits should right wrongs; not make someone feel better. </p>
<p>Look, terrible, awful tragic things happen every day. I have first-hand experience of that, and probably so do you. But wrapping ourselves up in wool isn’t the answer. I encourage my kids to take chances. I also expect them to have sense. They can tell reasonable from unreasonable. People climb ladders every day successfully.</p>
<p>The kids were merely suspended, not technically banned from graduation. Apparently the standard punishment for pranks (harmful or not) is 3-days. It just happens in this case that the 3 days includes graduation. So, all it teaches the kids is to do the prank a few days earlier.</p>
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<p>The school’s Principal (Administrator) determined the punishment. There was an appeal to the Superintendent (Brass), but the Superintendent did not override the decision of the Principal. Because of the press and support of the community, the Principal decided to allow the kids to walk in the ceremony in order to avoid disrupting the ceremony for the rest of the graduates (media circus, student protests, etc.).</p>
<p>There was another prank with a similar result at a nearby high school. At Arrowhead High School, the kids wrote “Class of '09” on the side of the school. They were forced to wash it off, and then were suspended and may not be able to attend graduation. Here is the kicker: They wrote “Class of '09” with sidewalk chalk so as not to damage the school and make it easy to wash off.</p>
<p>I suppose the safety conscious parents will have the same comment: What if the kids fell off the ladder while writing on the wall? I hope those parent’s don’t have their kids clean out the gutters at home. At the age of 12, I was climbing ladders to clean out the gutters on my parent’s 2 story home.</p>
<p>b’smom</p>
<p>I think I read in the local coverage that they had intended to donate the swing set. They just showed coverage of the graduation on the news and the valedictorian receiving his diploma. This particular high school had been in the news the past few weeks for another story as well. They were holding their ceremony at one of the mega-churches in the area so as to accomodate all the attendees at a reasonable price while their gym was under construction. A group of nine students’ parents filed a lawsuit trying to prohibit the ceremony taking place in a church. A judge just ruled a couple of days ago that the ceremony could take place in the church as it was not a religious ceremony. The parents didn’t want their children to have to look at a cross during their graduation.</p>
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<p>People in this sort of case aren’t suing to feel better. They would sue some entity with deep pockets to try to get $$ to defray the high cost of lifetime medical care for the injured teenager.</p>
<p>If a college wants to condone pranks, so be it. The kids are 18 years and older for the most part. But at high school, we/re talking about kids ages 14-18. Those kids don’t belong on the roof.</p>
<p>“Our intent of the prank was partially to show people that you could be clever with a prank and one-up the class from before without hurting anybody or damaging anything,” Hoaglund said…"</p>
<p>This is the problem with these pranks as I see it. Each class tries to one-up the class before them. If the administration doesn’t try hard enough to discourage the students from pranks, students will not be afraid to push the limits and this can quickly get way out of control.</p>
<p>I hate these kind of pranks and warned my senior over and over not to get involved.</p>
<p>Last year at a nearby school a student set off one or more smoke bombs in the school. Doors automatically shut; students with asthma immediately had breathing troubles. A blind student was utterly terrified. Lots of students were truly scared. They had a hard time seeing to get out of the hallway and out of the school.</p>
<p>Senior pranks = bad idea.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids participated at all in any “pranks,” and I don’t believe it has much traditoin at their HS. Going on the roof of some schools is much riskier than it may look, especially some roofs are not as sound and sturdy as they appear and tromping around on the roof can further weaken the roof. Our state has many leaky and weak roofs at schools and many other government buildings. </p>
<p>In general, I see pranks as a very bad idea, especially if it escalates every year with the next class trying to top the one before. In my S’s class, they presented the school with something from their class (tho I can’t remember what it was).</p>
<p>I don’t understand what harm was done by kids writing with sidewalk chalk on a school wall. The appropriate punishment would be fore them to clean it up and perhaps help the custodial staff for a few days with cleaning and especially getting rid of graffetti.</p>
<p>I agree that prank in HS is a bad idea. The school admins already have issues to worry everyday (drugs, harassment, bullying, violence, guns,…). If senior pranks are allowed then freshman pranks must be allowed too. The schools should make no prank policy clear to every student.</p>
<p>Across town, seniors planned a secret midnight prank for weeks, carried it off perfectly and will be remembered for years. They landscaped an area in front of the school, planted a fairly tall tree and flowers. Built a bench and installed it along with a plaque commemorating class of 09. Pulled an all-nighter to get it done, but what a pleasant surprise! Made the newspaper, too.</p>
<p>As someone who spends a lot of time walking around on roofs and designing roofs… They’re not death traps. They’re actually designed to support a live load to account for people walking around and equipment that might be used to perform work on the roof. Access is mainly restricted to prevent people who intend to harm themselves. If you’re aware of your surroundings and take care not to do anything brainless, spending time on the roof of a commercial building isn’t going to result in anything bad.</p>
<p>Pitched roofs, like the ones on houses, scare the wazoo out of me, but walking around on the roof of a school or office building or condo is actually a lot safer than walking on some of the bike paths I’ve seen next to bayous around here.</p>
<p>I’m confused, ellemenope. When you’re talking about the pranksters, you say it’s just one night, they still get to graduate and get a diploma. One night for one night seems fair to you. When you’re talking about your daughter, it’s ARE YOU NUTS, throwing away all the honors, great college, etc., for skipping school to go shopping.</p>
<p>The question is what punishment would be fair for pulling a prank. The ARE YOU NUTS referred to what I would say TO my daughter if she thought of pulling a prank, not to the administration who could wield great power to punish for a prank. </p>
<p>The problem is that you don’t know what the consequences will be if you pull a prank. Many administrations could care less about being “fair” or “making the punishment fit the crime.” They need to avoid liability and to keep things from getting out of hand. If that means coming down hard on someone so that kids will avoid pranking, then they’ll do it.</p>
<p>You should know what the cost of doing something will be before you do it. Then you can make a choice as to whether it makes sense to do it. With a prank, you can’t always know the cost. The cost-benefit analysis doesn’t make sense to me.</p>