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High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests

polgara said:
And here I was thinking - "I wish I had thought of that!" :lamo:
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One definition of prank is "a harmless trick performed for amusement."

The word harmless is kind of key here.

My dope smoking colleagues and I came in early one day of some importance [I no longer recall nor care] and reset all the clocks from the master in the office.

They didn't figure it out for two days....which demonstrated why we did it in the first place...but it was 1967 and the Summer of Love was just starting.

This just demonstrates these kids haven't grown up.....
 
Destruction of property isn't a prank, it's a crime.
 
iliveonramen said:
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.
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Stupid law enforcement. Stepping in when a crime has been committed. How dare they.
 
GottaGo said:
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.
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I say send them to jail so they learn that the adult world doesn't tolerate this bull****.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
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.
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Exactly. And when caught we just had to clean up. Because no real damage had been done, no police or possible court charges as consequence.
 
They should be required to pay for all damaged items, and do all of the labor to clean up everything they messed up. THEN they should have to do some sort of community service. No jail, no court, no records. It might have started out as a prank, but it went too far with breaking and entering, and destruction of property.
 
wolfsgirl said:
They should be required to pay for all damaged items, and do all of the labor to clean up everything they messed up. THEN they should have to do some sort of community service. No jail, no court, no records. It might have started out as a prank, but it went too far with breaking and entering, and destruction of property.
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That is an odd suggestion - eliminate due process and have ??? require these presumed innocent folks to pay a fine and engage in slave labor. Perhaps, what you really mean is that a wise judge would accept a guilty plea deal in exchange for a "probation before judgement" decision if, and only if, those restitution actions are taken and documented. ;)
 
ttwtt78640 said:
That is an odd suggestion - eliminate due process and have ??? require these presumed innocent folks to pay a fine and engage in slave labor. Perhaps, what you really mean is that a wise judge would accept a guilty plea deal in exchange for a "probation before judgement" decision if. and only if, those restitution actions are taken and documented. ;)
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I read that mistakenly originally. There is a middle ground where the court decides, if certain conditions are met, the case goes away. Leaving no record for the kids to have to live with afterwards.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
That is an odd suggestion - eliminate due process and have ??? require these presumed innocent folks to pay a fine and engage in slave labor. Perhaps, what you really mean is that a wise judge would accept a guilty plea deal in exchange for a "probation before judgement" decision if, and only if, those restitution actions are taken and documented. ;)
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If you feel this needs to go to court and be on these kids records that is fine. I personally have been caught after a prank, and I'm thankful that I was given the option of cleaning up the mess. I have also caught kids spray painting graffiti on the wall outside of a club I was managing. I gave them the choice of calling the police, or paying for the materials to clean up the mess and do the labor of cleaning. Guess which they chose?
 
clownboy said:
I read that mistakenly originally. There is a middle ground where the court decides, if certain conditions are met, the case goes away. Leaving no record for the kids to have to live with afterwards.
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A juvenile record is not widely accessible and will act as a reminder that future mayhem, as a juvenile, will exact a higher cost as you are then a repeat offender. Allowing crimes to slide is not wise, sometimes "tough love" leaves a mark. ;)
 
1. As a senior class, these "kids" are all at least 16 and so responsible for their own actions. Unless a parent or parents actively participated or facilitated, the punishment is all on the kids.

2. They should be charged with any crimes that the law allows. It will be up to judges to determine suitable punishment, upon conviction - it should not be determined by the local police. Should the police refuse to act, the school/board should file suit against each of them and should also look to have the local police lay charges.

3. The school themselves are perfectly within their power to suspend or expel the students and deny them their diplomas and certification of graduation. Make them attend another school, preferably in another jurisdiction, and waste another year graduating. The incidents should also appear in the school records so that any college or university they wish to apply to will know what they're getting into.

I say all of this because we have a distinct trend in young people today - not all, but a good chunk - who have zero respect for other's property and no sense of right and wrong - they need to be taught a lesson so that their behaviour may be modified before it becomes too late.
 
wolfsgirl said:
If you feel this needs to go to court and be on these kids records that is fine. I personally have been caught after a prank, and I'm thankful that I was given the option of cleaning up the mess. I have also caught kids spray painting graffiti on the wall outside of a club I was managing. I gave them the choice of calling the police, or paying for the materials to clean up the mess and do the labor of cleaning. Guess which they chose?
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The bolded above could be seen as extortion. I have no objection to an option, but at the discretion of the judge. The flaw in your idea of offering a choice, off the record, is who will see to it that the promises are followed up with actions?
 
ttwtt78640 said:
The bolded above could be seen as extortion. I have no objection to an option, but at the discretion of the judge. The flaw in your idea of offering a choice, off the record, is who will see to it that the promises are followed up with actions?
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In that case I made sure the promises were followed up on. I sent an employee to buy the materials while I sat there with the kids. I sat there and watched them clean up the mess. If they decided that they didn't want to clean, I would have called the police to deal with it.

In the school case they could have a janitor or even the principal oversee the clean up, those that didn't want to help could be turned over to the police.
 
wolfsgirl said:
In that case I made sure the promises were followed up on. I sent an employee to buy the materials while I sat there with the kids. I sat there and watched them clean up the mess. If they decided that they didn't want to clean, I would have called the police to deal with it.

In the school case they could have a janitor or even the principal oversee the clean up, those that didn't want to help could be turned over to the police.
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Holding them where in the mean time? This does not sound like an hour or two cleaning effort would make things right.
 
HenryChinaski said:
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.
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Dont know why you felt the need to throw the class warfare bull**** into the argument...but...

I agree with the first part. It may conceivably been a prank but it certainly transcended the idea of 'prank'. Actions have consequence. They might as well learn it now. Maybe sentence them all to some community service and clean and paint every school and public building in the district for a few months.

All that being said...I wont go into details about what we did to our rival high school in Florida during homecoming.
 
solletica said:
Good 'ol town of Teaneck. TEApartier + RedNECK =
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LOL, but not likely.

Unless there's a fringe group of African American/Hispanic, Northeastern Liberal, TEA Party rednecks I don't know about.
 
1] If any of the arrested were not students, then charge and try with all the charges that can be leveled.

2] If any of the arrested are students, and are seniors, then offer them the chance to
A]pleady guilty to charges. B] pay $1000.00 in restitution. C] forfeit the opportunity to walk across the stage.
OR take option 1].

3] if any of the arrested were students, but not seniors, then offer them A], B], and D] be expelled from school. OR except option 1].
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Holding them where in the mean time? This does not sound like an hour or two cleaning effort would make things right.
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They obviously have the names of the students. You tell them to show up Saturday at 9, those that do not show have their names and addresses turned over to the police. The school already has their name, phone number, address, parents names, etc on record. This really isn't difficult. A bunch of 16-17 year olds aren't a huge flight risk.
 
Dragonfly said:
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?
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A perfectly good class prank ruined by some idiot who felt the need to pee on everything.

The best class prank in my area growing up was a bunch of kids who lifted 6 oil drums on the school roof of their school and painted them to look like a six pack of Budweiser.

Ours was more tame. Some kids just duct taped blow up dolls to the rope and ran them up the flagpoles all around the school.
 
wolfsgirl said:
They obviously have the names of the students. You tell them to show up Saturday at 9, those that do not show have their names and addresses to the police. The school already has their name, phone number, address, parents names, etc on record. This really isn't difficult. A bunch of 16-17 year olds aren't a huge flight risk.
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Exactly.

Basically - require all involved to become the janitorial staff for the school for the rest of the school year, and through the summer if needed. Make them clean everything. Paint. Mop. Dust.

I don't see a need for criminal charges, and permanent records if the kids that were caught will make an effort to "pay back" on what they did. Plus interest.

Make them work for school district until they go back to school in the fall, or until Labor Day for those not attending school in the fall.
 
Fearandloathing said:
One definition of prank is "a harmless trick performed for amusement."

The word harmless is kind of key here.

My dope smoking colleagues and I came in early one day of some importance [I no longer recall nor care] and reset all the clocks from the master in the office.

They didn't figure it out for two days....which demonstrated why we did it in the first place...but it was 1967 and the Summer of Love was just starting.

This just demonstrates these kids haven't grown up.....
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Resetting clocks is also something I wish I had thought of! Darn... :mrgreen:
 
ttwtt78640 said:
A juvenile record is not widely accessible and will act as a reminder that future mayhem, as a juvenile, will exact a higher cost as you are then a repeat offender. Allowing crimes to slide is not wise, sometimes "tough love" leaves a mark. ;)
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But tough love should involve paying restitution, and not having a record that is likely to keep them from ever launching a career.
 
polgara said:
Resetting clocks is also something I wish I had thought of! Darn... :mrgreen:
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Messing with people's heads is not, for the most part, illegal; likely relegated to a charge of mischief.

Filling a punch bowl with booze is not harmless, but leaving six or eight empty bottles on your vice principal's lawn is....but very awkward for the vice principal who has put you on detention for trading record albums on school property.

The French Blu Cheese on his manifold I thought was the best. Even steam cleaning the engine did not get rid of the smell...
 
Fearandloathing said:
Messing with people's heads is not, for the most part, illegal; likely relegated to a charge of mischief.

Filling a punch bowl with booze is not harmless, but leaving six or eight empty bottles on your vice principal's lawn is....but very awkward for the vice principal who has put you on detention for trading record albums on school property.

The French Blu Cheese on his manifold I thought was the best. Even steam cleaning the engine did not get rid of the smell...
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You have given me some excellent ideas for our next April Fools Day! I'm going to bookmark them - especially the Blu Cheese one! How can something smell so bad and still be deliberately crumbled over a salad as a preferred dressing? Lots of wine helps, I guess! :cool:
 
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