7 senior pranks that went so overboard, one caused a heart attack

This year, a news cycle or two had been filled with the senior prank that students pulled at the high school in South River.

Police say trespassers entered the building after hours, and the scene they found upon arriving was so chaotic that it took them a long time to even realize it was intended as a senior prank.

They say it had all the signs of a burglary, with things strewn about everywhere.

Furniture was stacked up in hallways, toilet paper was tossed throughout the gym, and basically vandalism all over. Once they realized the mayhem they were witnessing didn’t include anything stolen, they realized this was a prank gone too far. There was no real theme to it. There was nothing clever about it. It was just chaos and vandalism without any wit.

Dozens of students were identified and accused of being involved. An agreement was reached for punishment falling short of actual police charges.

If you heard about this South River story and thought it was unique, you have a short memory. Here are seven times senior pranks went too far in New Jersey. One even caused a heart attack. Credit where it’s due, nj.com ran a story on these and even more pranks. I’m choosing to only write about the seven that I remember and offer my take on them.

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David Brearley High School in Kenilworth

It was the last day of school here in 1998 when students verbally abused teachers, overturned trash bins, shot shaving cream everywhere, and released two live chickens into the halls. Thirteen students had diplomas withheld until community service was performed.

I recall talking about this my first time working here at New Jersey 101.5, and a lot of parents were feeling the punishment was draconian because it was in good fun, and no one was hurt.

I feel a good prank is better thought out, has a plot, perhaps even a twist. Example. The two live chickens? Live animals have been used before, but the twist in other schools was that they were not only numbered, but they were also purposely misnumbered to make a futile search go on for hours.

In other words, had these two live chickens been numbered 1 and 3, it would have caused faculty to think there was a third they couldn’t find with a number 2 written on it. Now THAT is a funny prank.

Montgomery High School

A year later, this school’s senior class went too far. I had no sympathy. Four students were accused of taking a dead deer off the side of 206 and somehow figured out how to hang it off the school’s flagpole. All I could think was which poor bastard on staff was going to be ordered to take down the rotting dead animal. Worse, part of their prank in 1999 was dumping a huge amount of manure on the front steps. Luckily, the same students who dropped the manure were the ones who were made to clean it all up.

Pascack Hills High School in Montvale

If 2000 had left the seniors at their original prank, it would have been fine and likely never made news. The original plan was to release thousands of rubber balls down a hallway.

Then they added things they shouldn’t. Things like releasing rats and mice to scurry down the halls and sending thousands of crickets into the building. The chaos caused an evacuation of the building, and then, due to all the stress, the school’s principal suffered a heart attack. He survived, but was this worth it? Let me save you the time. It wasn’t worth it.

Teaneck High School

The Bergen County prosecutor brought criminal charges against dozens of students there for the 2014 senior prank. It involved all of the following:

Smearing Vaseline on doors

Throwing food all over

Throwing furniture into hallways

Drawing graffiti on walls

It involved none of the following:

A clever idea

A theme or a purpose

And that, friends, is why this was just another dumb prank that wasn’t slightly funny.

Robbinsville High School

A year later, a massive water gun attack was the senior prank here. Seniors brought in very brightly painted, therefore obvious, water guns and opened fire (shouldn’t it be open water?) on teachers, staff, other students, anything that moved. Now, in my opinion, the only thing about this prank that went too far was the school’s reaction in moving up an already planned lockdown drill. They went into lockdown over silly water guns, but to be fair, there was no punishment for the students that I recall, and really, the school only did it to prevent anyone from slipping in water puddles and getting unintentionally hurt.

Lyndhurst High School

Just three years ago, this was another case of the reaction going too far, not the prank itself. Students got to the school and moved furniture out into the hallways. For this furniture jam up the administration decided that students involved would be barred from walking at their graduation.

Oh, come on! And I’m not the only one who felt that was absurd. A Change.org petition upset with the school’s position on the matter got well over 2,600 signatures, and the administration backed down.

West Milford High School

Two years ago, a senior prank in this Passaic County high school involved festooning the school with toilet paper as well as shredded paper, putting dog food on desks, stacking tiers of books, and moving furniture around. And the very following day, the students who did it all showed up to clean it all up and put everything back. Did that matter? Nope. The school suspended dozens of students involved. Again, the prank was uninspiring, but the punishment was way too far.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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