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High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests

Dragonfly

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High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests

TEANECK, N.J. (AP) — Sixty-two students were arrested Thursday after police said they broke into their high school overnight for a senior class prank, urinating in hallways, greasing doorknobs with petroleum jelly and taping hot dogs to lockers.


Police said officers responding to a burglar alarm at Teaneck High School shortly after 2 a.m. also found desks flipped over, chairs broken, graffiti on the walls, silly string on the floors and balloons throughout the building.

Thoughts on punishments here.

Should parents be held accountable?
Legal arrest records?
Official charges?

Just a high school prank?

Let kids go with a wrist slap?

They're just being kids?

Enough is enough with these young punks - throw the book at them?
 
High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests



Thoughts on punishments here.

Should parents be held accountable?
Legal arrest records?
Official charges?

Just a high school prank?

Let kids go with a wrist slap?

They're just being kids?

Enough is enough with these young punks - throw the book at them?
It's not like they innocently TP''d some trees. Charge them with criminal trespass and vandalism. Then again of any of these kids come from well to do, uppidy families, they'll be given high fives and be sent on their merry ways.
 
High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests



Thoughts on punishments here.

Should parents be held accountable?
Legal arrest records?
Official charges?

Just a high school prank?

Let kids go with a wrist slap?

They're just being kids?

Enough is enough with these young punks - throw the book at them?

From this moronic statement:

"If this was a senior class prank, I just don't believe that a lot of them realize the seriousness of it as far as breaking into the building," Sgt. John Garland said. "That's a burglary and I don't think they understand that. It's a very serious offense."

These kids, or at least most of them, will likely get off.

No, that is not burglary that is breaking and entering but the bigger offense is the destruction of property. Thousands of dollars in damages, even divided by 62, is the serious crime and does not even require proof that the doors were locked.
 
I would easily be able to wrist slap the kids and send them away had they not been destructive.

The "breaking and entering" part isn't my issue so much as the senseless vandalism.
 
It would seem that they got swept up in a mob mentality. Pranks are funny, harmless jokes. Urinating in the school, breaking the schools property, and graffiti do not make a prank. That's a criminal offense.
 
They should know better - that in today's world a prank means jail time. Yes they were just being kids. It was a high school prank but there is no common sense nor sense of humor nor way for kids to innocently express themselves any longer in our society. Zero tolerance means these kids will probably be suspended perhaps for the rest of the year, seniors will not be allowed to graduate with their class, they may be charged with juvenile misdemeanors depending on the damage - maybe light felony's. The days of pranks during or at school went away last in the 1980's, probably never to return.
 
Breaking into the school was a bridge too far. I too have greased a few locker handles in my day, but in my HS the lockers were outside and didn't require breaking and entering. Of course I never broke equipment or pissed in the hallways. That is not pranking, that's straight up vandalism.
 
They should know better - that in today's world a prank means jail time. Yes they were just being kids. It was a high school prank but there is no common sense nor sense of humor nor way for kids to innocently express themselves any longer in our society. Zero tolerance means these kids will probably be suspended perhaps for the rest of the year, seniors will not be allowed to graduate with their class, they may be charged with juvenile misdemeanors depending on the damage - maybe light felony's. The days of pranks during or at school went away last in the 1980's, probably never to return.

Are you generally saying that's a good thing or a bad thing?

If you were King - would you let kids go with no punishment at all?

I would, had they not been as destructive as it sounds like they were.
 
Are you generally saying that's a good thing or a bad thing?

If you were King - would you let kids go with no punishment at all?

I would, had they not been as destructive as it sounds like they were.

In today's world I'd have to give in (if I were to keep my job as King) to the neurological disorder called "zero tolerance". They'd get the book thrown at them would be my assumption, regardless of how light the destruction or defacement. If I could still be King and not give into the stupidity, I'd dismiss the police, make these kids clean the entire school, top to bottom, including the grounds, sports fields, busses, I'm talking everything. Then they'd get to stay in class the entire rest of the year - no early dismissal, no off prem lunch, and when class wasn't going on they'd be watching informative video's in the auditorium and would spend every last second in school. I may or may not require summer school class on "How to behave in society" before anyone got their graduation papers as well. But I'd let them graduate, I wouldn't file charges, I wouldn't go after their parents....
 
I think maybe some creative sentencing is called for.
Make the kids pay for the supplies, and do the cleanup them selves.
NO parental help, no power tools, all elbow grease.
 
High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests



Thoughts on punishments here.

Should parents be held accountable?
Legal arrest records?
Official charges?

Just a high school prank?

Let kids go with a wrist slap?

They're just being kids?

Enough is enough with these young punks - throw the book at them?

Scare them, school disciplinary measures are fine like not letting them walk, but arrests are overboard. This country has a serious problem with bringing in law enforcement on everything.
 
If I could still be King and not give into the stupidity, I'd dismiss the police, make these kids clean the entire school, top to bottom, including the grounds, sports fields, busses, I'm talking everything. Then they'd get to stay in class the entire rest of the year - no early dismissal, no off prem lunch, and when class wasn't going on they'd be watching informative video's in the auditorium and would spend every last second in school. I may or may not require summer school class on "How to behave in society" before anyone got their graduation papers as well. But I'd let them graduate, I wouldn't file charges, I wouldn't go after their parents....

I could live with that.:mrgreen:
 
They should know better - that in today's world a prank means jail time. Yes they were just being kids. It was a high school prank but there is no common sense nor sense of humor nor way for kids to innocently express themselves any longer in our society. Zero tolerance means these kids will probably be suspended perhaps for the rest of the year, seniors will not be allowed to graduate with their class, they may be charged with juvenile misdemeanors depending on the damage - maybe light felony's. The days of pranks during or at school went away last in the 1980's, probably never to return.

Nonsense. It is not a natural part of being a kid to intentionally damage property, public or private. That is why it is a criminal offense to do so. As pranks at HS we picked up the coach's VW bug and placed it (tightly) sideways in the gym entrance alcove and set fireworks (bottle rockets), timed with cigarettes to delay the fuses, in the staff parking area but we did not intentionally break or permanently damage/deface anything. Pranks are intended to annoy not to do permanent harm/damage.
 
`
What happened to just tossing toilet paper on the trees? Mindless vandalism is not a prank.
`
 
High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests

Thoughts on punishments here.

Should parents be held accountable?
Legal arrest records?
Official charges?

Just a high school prank?

Let kids go with a wrist slap?

They're just being kids?

Enough is enough with these young punks - throw the book at them?

Senior prank for my graduating class was riding a horse through graduation practice on the football field and driving a VW bug through the auto shop's doors and into the hall, through the school and out the front doors (during classes)..... nothing permanently damaged, and no one had to clean up after us.

Kids idea of 'fun' has changed massively in the intervening years.

Make them clean it up, pay for damaged goods, do X number of hours community service, and let the parents add their punishment on.
 
Nonsense. It is not a natural part of being a kid to intentionally damage property, public or private.

Ummmm....... I'd have to disagree a little with that.

Lawn jobs (turf jobs) in cars....graffiti....shooting out light bulbs or windows with bb guns.....throwing snow balls at cars.... kids do that crap ALL THE TIME
 
Nonsense. It is not a natural part of being a kid to intentionally damage property, public or private. That is why it is a criminal offense to do so. As pranks at HS we picked up the coach's VW bug and placed it (tightly) sideways in the gym entrance alcove and set fireworks (bottle rockets), timed with cigarettes to delay the fuses, in the staff parking area but we did not intentionally break or permanently damage/deface anything. Pranks are intended to annoy not to do permanent harm/damage.

Dunno about you but kids are destructive - having been one you'd agree no? Without having a list of the actual damage it's hard to say.
 
Scare them, school disciplinary measures are fine like not letting them walk, but arrests are overboard. This country has a serious problem with bringing in law enforcement on everything.

Are you suggesting that the police should not respond to an alarm at a school? That makes no sense.
 
High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests



Thoughts on punishments here.

Should parents be held accountable?
Legal arrest records?
Official charges?

Just a high school prank?

Let kids go with a wrist slap?

They're just being kids?

Enough is enough with these young punks - throw the book at them?




Well, let's see.

The courts do allow for intent....as in if it was an intent to steal, well then maybe a stiffer penalty.

But how is this any different that say a flash mob in Watts?

The damage done AND the cost of the police raid, the investigation and the trial must be repaid, and they should at least get indefinite probation ]if not some hard time.

As well, the school should consider making them repeat their senior year. These pukes certainly don't deserve college.
 
Ummmm....... I'd have to disagree a little with that.

Lawn jobs (turf jobs) in cars....graffiti....shooting out light bulbs or windows with bb guns.....throwing snow balls at cars.... kids do that crap ALL THE TIME

I never did those things but did do the fake rope across the road thing, placed dead fish behind hubcaps/wheel covers or let the air out of tires (by removing the valve stem core). The idea was always to make mischief without risking the police getting involved. Some went a bit further like using antifreeze to write on lawns and draping toilet paper over trees/bushes or relocating lawn decorations/furniture (swapping them between homes) but not anything irreversible or costly to clean up/fix.
 
Senior prank for my graduating class was riding a horse through graduation practice on the football field and driving a VW bug through the auto shop's doors and into the hall, through the school and out the front doors (during classes)..... nothing permanently damaged, and no one had to clean up after us.

Kids idea of 'fun' has changed massively in the intervening years.

Make them clean it up, pay for damaged goods, do X number of hours community service, and let the parents add their punishment on.

And here I was thinking - "I wish I had thought of that!" :lamo:
 
High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests



Thoughts on punishments here.

Should parents be held accountable?
Legal arrest records?
Official charges?

Just a high school prank?

Let kids go with a wrist slap?

They're just being kids?

Enough is enough with these young punks - throw the book at them?

They should make reparations, pay for all of the damage they've done with money that they (not their parents) have earned , do some community service and repair damage that other people have done but not been caught.

This should be a learning experience for the teens. Putting them in juvenile hall isn't likely to be as good of a lesson as having them repay the school.
 
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