“Oh don’t worry, I was only joking.” This is a normal statement repeated by many teens when they get caught trying to pull a prank that adults think are dangerous or irresponsible. Innocent pranks are fun and a normal part of life. Pranks cause great laughs and lighten the stress in high schools everywhere, but sometimes we need to ask ourselves, “Are our pranks getting a bit out of hand and going a bit too far?”

In January, 2008, four friends in West Chester decided to pull a prank for a bit of friendly fun. These four planned to go to a wooden shed in the backyard of Daniel Ferraro, 19, and detonate a pipe bomb in it. At the time it seemed safe for the group. According to Daniel’s friends, Daniel always set off homemade explosives and knew what he was doing. In the end they were all proved wrong.

When the bomb was set off, the shed burst into many pieces. Unfortunately a piece of the shed flew toward Daniel. Daniel was hit and killed from a fatal blow caused the explosive that the group thought they could handle. Now the friends Robert Moser, 19, and two unnamed friends ages 15 and 14 years old are charged with involuntary manslaughter and possession of illegal explosives. Moser has been sentenced to suspended jail time and eighty hours of public service teaching other peers of his of how dangerous explosives really are and why good decision making is important.

The loss of Daniel was tragic. This 19-year-old was a student at Miami University and was a former Eagle Scout, a rank that only the best of the best in boy scouts can achieve. His parents were proud of him, and Daniel’s death was a harsh blow. When asked, the parents simply said this incident is an example of why teens should make wise decisions.

Here at Taylor we don’t have too many explosives in pranks, but we do have many pranks of violence, wrestling around, insulting one another, and many other incidents like this. Many of these pranks lead to violence and injury either emotionally or physically. Though pranks are a part of life and can be enjoyable when done in the right way, people need to think long and hard about the pranks they pull and the consequences that may follow. When it comes to senior pranks, even teachers have to laugh sometimes, because they don’t cross any huge boundaries for other people. But teachers and staff, or even students, won’t be laughing if a prank does cross that line or cause harm in any way.

Either way some pranks should stop. Sometimes what we do may seem like fun and end up hurting other people which robs them from enjoying the prank as well. Instead of ignoring the effects or not thinking about the effects of our pranks we should all be responsible and see the effects truthfully and take them into consideration. Some people may say its no fun like that or that it just gets boring, but in all honesty would anybody want to have the same kind of fun that Daniel Ferraro had? These are all questions that we sometimes need to ask ourselves before taking action.