<p>Kyle Garchar, a senior at Hilliard Davidson High School in Ohio, tricked fans of a rival football team into holding up signs that together spelled out “We Suck.” Before the game, Garchar placed cards on the seats of 800 Hilliard Darby High School supporters and told them to raise the signs – which were supposed to spell “Go Darby” – during the third quarter. The student and his accomplices spent days preparing for the mean joke, which was all caught on tape – you can see the footage below. Not everybody found the joke funny, though – the students were later suspended by the principal of the school. </p>
<p>I’m generally a “follow the rules” kind of gal, but I thought this was pretty darn funny. If it was my kid, I think I’d really fight the suspension. D had a friend with a suspension for a dumb thing in Freshman year on his record. It’s a question on every college app–“Have you ever been suspended? If so, provide details.” At least, in this particular case, Mr. Garchar could put the link to youtube on that space on the college app. Come to think of it, that might be a sure “in” to Cal Tech?!!</p>
<p>He was copying what Yalies did to Harvard students at the Harvard-Yale game several years ago. No one got punished. In fact, Yalies are very proud of themselves for getting Harvard students to raise those cards twice!</p>
<p>Suspension? That’s overkill. No one was hurt (save a few egos). No reason to damage his record. Then again, he’s now all the more appealing the gods at Caltech.</p>
<p>Perhaps the penalty would have been less if it said “We Stink” rather than “We Suck”? Many people still consider “suck” to be a vulgarity, although it’s a pretty common term these days. The joke itself seems harmless and funny.</p>
<p>[Enthusiastic</a> new members](<a href=“http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/pranks/veterans.html]Enthusiastic”>This page has moved) from as far away as North Dakota paid dues to the main chapter in Princeton and adopted the organization’s salute: **arm held out towards Washington with “hand outstretched, palm up and expectant”<a href=“a%20mockery%20of%20the%20fascist%20salute%20then%20gaining%20currency%20in%20Europe”>/b</a>. At its peak, in June 1936, the Veterans of Future Wars had over 50,000 paid-up members.</p>
<p>Four years ago in the last game of our high school’s football season playing our fiercest rival, a senior boy set his senior prank in motion(literally). His get-away car was waiting outside the stadium as preplanned. When the refs called a time out as the game neared half-time, Senior boy dropped his pants and streaked across the football field wearing only his running shoes. If you will recall there was a similiar Nike commercial running on TV about that time (except the Nike guy ran across a a soccer field). All the kids on our side thought it was hilarious. Our rival guests were stunned. Senior boy was caught while trying to climb the stadium fence to reach his getaway (ouch).</p>
<p>Senior Boy was not only caught. He was arrested and charged with indecent exposure and was expelled from school and not allowed to attend any school in our system. Most people thought expulsion from school was too harsh of a punishment especially considering that our school is place where teachers have been assaulted, cars stolen from the teacher parking lot, kids held up in the bathrooms, etc. </p>
<p>This kid had never been in any trouble before and was from a nice family in our neighborhood. I guess he had no idea his prank would cause so much trouble. In his 17 year old boy mind, it just sounded like a great prank.</p>
<p>So he was not allowed to finish his senior year. He got his GED from the local CC. He is now on his second tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Marines.</p>
<p>Sorry, I accept that the student had to be suspended under the “broken window theory”. Any highly public violation of the rules that you fail to respond to tends to lead to further, more serious violations (which is not an argument for zero tolerance, btw). </p>
<p>In this case, though, the suspension is a badge of honor.</p>
<p>The key question was whether the principal was able to render the verdict with a straight face.</p>
<p>I see both sides of this, I guess the point is what is the history and and rules of the school. The “broken window theory” is a good policy if it is applied evenly. Wouldn’t work so well at a school with safety issues or vandalism issues that aren’t being addressed - consistency!</p>
<p>Years ago at DH’s school a serious senior prank occurred that caused about $10K worth of damage to school property. The then principal made a very public announcement that the culprits, aiders and abetors, and anyone who knew anything about the incident but didn’t tell, would suffer serious consequences, including arrest and prosecution. Well, it finally came out that the culprit was the valedictorian, and not one of the usual suspects, AND the val was the son of a friend who offered to bail out son and pay for the damage. Then the tune completely changed. What really annoyed the faculty, though, was that the val was allowed to give the grad speech, anyway. It is all about consistency.</p>
<p>If the guy’s friends want to show support, they know what they can do: inveigle the school administration staff to hold cards up with the same letters that were used at the game.</p>
<p>I’m with Strick11 on this one - you have to impose a penalty. On the other hand, you don’t have to pretend you don’t have a certain admiration for the culprit all the same. I doubt the suspension will have that much of a damaging impact on Kyle’s life.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why there needs to be punishment in this case? What exactly did he do wrong? What rule was broken? </p>
<p>Now, in the case of the naked runner at the football game, that’s a little bit different. We actually had that my freshman year I guess it was. A kid did it not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES within a week before he was finally caught.</p>
<p>The first time he did it at a bonfire for Homecoming on like a Wednesday or Thursday night. Bonfire is held in school parking lot… He ran out of the residential neighborhood, through the parking lot, and into the cemetery. It was dark so he couldn’t be identified. (Really couldn’t even be seen all that much b/c he stayed on the outskirts of the event)</p>
<p>The second time he did it that Friday night at the football game. Again, he stayed toward the outskirts, but in a spot that he could be noticed that something was happening.</p>
<p>The third time he did it at a volleyball game. He got down into the locker room (our gym has locker room entrances at either end on one side that go down a flight of stairs) and he came up, ran across in front of the two benches and right out the back door where he had a ride waiting for him. </p>
<p>He got away on this third attempt as well with nobody knowing. But the next morning as one of our coaches was coming in the back door he noticed a belt sitting there. This was a cotton belt that had been customized with markers and such. Was a dead give-a-way… BUSTED.</p>
<p>After all that, I know he did get charged criminally, but I’m pretty sure he only got suspended and not expelled.</p>
<p>My children went to two different high schools – one public, one private. Both had published lists of infractions and penalties. If the prinicpal can’t show me an infraction, there should be no penalty.</p>
<p>This is WAAYYYYY too PC.</p>
<p>I think the kid is a genius for pulling this off.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link in post #4. I think Caltech deserved another top 10 spot for changing the score in the 1984 Rose Bowl to read Caltech 38 - MIT 9 (UCLA was playing Illinois).</p>