Of course you want your class to be remembered. You want to leave a legacy. A well-planned, well-executed senior prank is the perfect thing for that. The whole point of the senior prank is to leave a memory for your class and yourself. A senior prank is a symbol of school spirit. To be successful you'll need organization, planning, creativity, and follow through.         

Creativity is a must, as well as gathering others who you can trust and need in the secrecy of the prank. Persuading people to do their job as well as doing it quietly is huge in the pranking operation.  More importantly, you must be organized; everyone should know his or her role. Everyone needs to be able to follow through with the prank and be ready for anything.

It may be possible to get janitors, or teachers you are close too on your side.  The key is to explain that you need their help, so things don't get out of hand. They may be willing to help out if it is a good and safe prank, especially in an effort to prevent a bad one. If you let them know about the prank, they may even give you some pointers. Make sure the prank will not result in ruining their reputation because they most likely will not help out.

The senior prank is a moment where you can show that you are smart enough to pull one over. It is not to get revenge on a teacher or school you don't like, and the goal is not to cause destruction.  Vandalism to the school can result in people getting in trouble as well as leaving a bad name for your senior class; you want to be remembered in a good way.

            Every year around this time, news stories start to appear about high school seniors being arrested for vandalism that were supposed to be pranks.

“Pranks can affect your reputation as a whole class; if you do something funny that the teachers might even laugh at, it can be good. But when you start to spray paint or trash the school that’s when your class is being judged as a bad senior class." says the class President, Peter Eliopoulos.

Some people may not see the actual crime when thinking they are doing a “funny” class prank. There are always repercussions to any action of vandalism and it can lead to many things that can affect your future. It can lead to things such as, loss of scholarships and college opportunities as well as opportunities after high school.

“The line is crossed between a prank and vandalism when school property starts getting destroyed. What happened to the school this year could have been funny but instead turned into a bad prank.  It was ridiculous; signs were being pulled out of the ground,” said IHS senior, Chris Desmond.

There are ways to go through with a prank without vandalizing or getting in trouble. Of course you may get caught and might have to deal with the repercussions of your actions. Ideas for a good prank could be spelling out seniors with rocks and putting it in the front of the school, or with some type of food, or filling the pod up with balls like a ball pit.  These are all pranks that you can do without getting in trouble.

“Senior pranks are funny as long as you don’t cross the line; I remember when I was a senior everyone expected us to do a prank so we didn’t even do one. It was perfect because there was no risk at all,” laughed Mr. Bereket, an IHS parent.

Pranks can be funny and should be funny, make sure you choose a good one that doesn’t cross the line. Make sure the school remembers who the seniors are but don’t leave a bad mark to ruin your reputation.