<p>The school has one of those enclosed area’s where kids are supposed to be allowed to eat lunch outside on nice days. Sunday night 17 senior boys camped out there as a senior prank. They had to climb over the wall (with ladders) to do so. They did not enter the building at all and did no damage. All the kids got a 5 day suspension as well as two other students that alerted the local media. According to the School District the latter suspension was because the e-mails were sent from school property which is against SD policy.</p>
<p>As you can imagine, the suspension is causing much more of a ruckus then the actual prank. Finals start Monday which are 20% of the grade. Seniors have been doing camp outs for years as a senior prank but, from what I understand, have always given the administration a heads up regarding location - football field, parking lot, etc.</p>
<p>I think Solehigh overreacted with this one. And to suspend two students for submitting letters to the editor because they used school computers to do it? Bah.</p>
<p>I guess my question would be, was this year any different? Meaning, is there a new administration that didn’t look upon it as benign as previous administrations? And did they give a head’s up that they wouldn’t ‘look the other way’?</p>
<p>For years, our high school always did color wars the week of homecoming. It had gotten out of hand, and this year we had a new administration who decided to crack down and not allow color wars. But they made it VERY clear weeks leading up to homecoming that color wars would not be tolerated and anyone engaging in it would have consequences. It was not a popular decision with many kids (although there was solid support from most teachers to cancel it). Knowing kids, they found subtle ways to ‘get around it’ (like wearing certain color underwear and sort of letting it show), but I don’t think any consequences were handed down. </p>
<p>My kids always hated color wars as they inevitably ended up with with paint splattered on their clothes. And there would inevitably be some property damage that needed to be fixed (paint/marker on lockers, etc.)</p>
<p>So again, I guess my question would be whether or not the administration made it clear that sleepovers would not be tolerated this year and the boys did it anyway.</p>
<p>The consequence for the email-ers does not fit the “crime”! It seems like a technicality to say that they wrote the newspaper using school computers and that the computers are only to be used for educational purposes. Students said that if a computer typically is used for personal use, then internet privileges are taken away and there is no suspension. It seems they were suspended for speaking negatively about the school to the media. I feel they should be free to talk to the media! </p>
<p>The senior prank seems rather harmless to me but if consequences are given for trespassing, to make a point, I could see that but being suspended seems like overkill. I think the school is bringing more negativity to it by their choice of actions and consequences. Also, if they have done these “camp outs” before, it is nothing new (though I think giving the school a head’s up would have helped).</p>
<p>I know that pranks are supposed to be fun, but I’m the cautious type who wouldn’t want to jeopardize graduation, honors and college admissions for anything like a senior prank. There are stories every year about pranks that got out of hand or just weren’t treated benignly by the school administration. Why risk it?</p>
<p>Sounds to me that they are being punished for being tattletales. Which makes the punishment appropriate. I went to an all boys HS where a tattle could expect punishment or at least derision from teachers and the administration.</p>
<p>DD told me yesterday that one of her teachers was reminiscing about how most of the senior pranks have been his idea. Great. One year he had convinced my son to write a letter telling all senior parents that graduation had been cut back and each family could only get one ticket. The letter went on that if you had a problem with that you could call the administration and gave one of the administrator’s home phone numbers.
Luckily, I got wind of it and nixed the idea. I appreciated the humor and it was clever but I was too worried about the consequences…</p>
<p>The current administration has been in place for a few years. At least the Principal has been at her job for three years and she was vice Principal before that. Prior to this event there was a big rumble about cyber-bullying so perhaps these are some of the same kids involved in this. I’m interested to hearing from Son what the talk of the school is today. There’s talk of a protest on Friday, which I think is supposed to be a half day for kids and an in-service for teachers.</p>
<p>I went to a high school with an open campus, so the idea of there being a fenced in area where the students are allowed to eat outside if it is nice is horrifying. It sounds like a prison, so I am not surprised the administration is acting like prison wardens.</p>
<p>I hope the parents of the suspended students take this up with the board of directors. There is no way this should affect their grades.</p>
<p>The suspension of the students who contacted the media was an incredible bone-headed move on behalf of the school official who did it. On the bright side, it was so stupid that it may result in the school board reducing the punishment for all of the students.</p>
<p>It’s not a fenced in area. It’s an atrium. We have a closed campus because it’s semi-rural. To get to anyplace you have to get in a car and drive somewhere.</p>
<p>Maybe they should just charge them criminally for trespassing? </p>
<p>I don’t see a real big problem with what happened, but apparently the administrators did. </p>
<p>We had an end-of-the-year assembly at my old high school a couple weeks ago where 5 or 6 seniors got in-school suspension for days they were supposed to be out of school for a couple of the lines in the skits— that had been approved by the teacher in charge!</p>
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<p>Our new high school has a fence that goes all the way around school property. Gates to close the roads and everything and cameras posted as well. You will not be allowed anywhere near that school except during the day when there are events or school there.</p>
<p>Only kid that got suspended at my high school was the kid who mooned passing drivers on the way back from the senior picnic. Probably would have gotten a pass had he not repeated his ‘exhibition’ by mooning the entire senior class (and senior class advisor, teachers and administraors) at the following senior breakfast. No graduation walk for him. Ahhh, the 80’s when life was so innocent!</p>
<p>I’m not really suggesting that they get the law involved. Was meaning to make the point that really the suspension isn’t that harsh of a punishment and the school could nail them if so desired.</p>
<p>Did you read the linked article? They were not being tattletales. They wrote the media about their views on the consequences that the school meted out to those who did the camp out on school property! How is that tattling? The school already knew it. The students informed the media of what happened at their school and their opinions about that. I see nothing wrong with that and the fact is, the school is using a technicality that they used the computers for something other than educational matters. </p>
<p>KathieP…my kids’ high school was like your kids’. It is rural and you cannot walk to anything. They have an atrium where students can have lunch outdoors as well. I don’t believe, however, that there is any way of accessing it if you were not already inside the building, unlike at your school.</p>
<p>Last year seniors at my DDs hs tried to spend the night on campus. Our campus is open, but the kids were caught and told to go home. I think the administration was tipped off. Anyway there was no damage done and no punishment for anyone. </p>
<p>My DDs are not seniors this year so we haven’t heard what the prank might be. There is an art festival in town now with painted cows and I am surprised one of these has not ended up in the quad at the highschool!</p>