Senior year of high school is the last year before students go their separate ways. The memories made during that last year can last a lifetime. A big part in forming these bonds are the senior traditions repeated year after year. Things like senior sunrise, senior skip day and senior pranks are always great ways for the senior class to get together and spend their last year as a group together.
Senior Luke Tomback said it was cool to partake in these traditions after seeing them happen for his previous three years in high school, and having the whole grade in one place having fun.
“These traditions are really fun to do, and I’ve heard about them my whole life. It’s really fun to participate in them,” Tomback said. “My favorite has probably been the senior skip day at the beach because it was fun to have everyone there enjoying the good weather.”
Senior James Dwyer said he enjoyed having the whole senior class together for these activities, and said he felt the need to sustain these traditions for years to come.
“These traditions are just a really good opportunity to bond together as a grade and hang out with everyone. It’s also important to uphold these traditions because they’ve been done in the past, and will continue in the future,” Dwyer said.
English teacher and Park alumni, Andrew Carlson, said he has some concerns for the extent of some senior pranks, and thought that at times they can go too far.
“Sometimes I get worried about the water balloons and things like that, because you have actual potential to injure. I know on the last day they were doing things like writing in ketchup and putting eggs on cars and all this stuff on people,” Carlson said. “And technically, you can do damage to people’s cars that way. Things like that, where you have potential to do harm to property or people, is taking it a little too far.”
Tomback said the senior class faced some opposition towards their pranks they did on their last day, such as parking and taking up multiple spots, or the water balloons.
“We couldn’t do the water balloons, which made all of us mad, because that’s what the seniors have done every year,” Tomback said. “They weren’t very happy about the parking today, but there wasn’t a ton of resistance. I think they were pretty chill this year.”
Dwyer said there was an attempt to work out a prank that the school would allow, but there wasn’t much that they were permitted to do.
“There’s been a lot of resistance in regards to senior pranks. I don’t know what exactly was going on, I wasn’t directly communicating with the school, so I wouldn’t know,” Dwyer said. “I know that there were issues, they wouldn’t allow us to do the water balloons. It seems like whatever senior prank we propose, they would say no.”
Carlson said he had enjoyed some of the pranks over the years as a teacher, especially the more innovative or unique ones that are harmless.
“I think there are some things that are pranks that are humorous and creative. For example, I don’t know if it was a senior here but one student put the school for sale on Craigslist for like $100,” Carlson said. “Stuff like that is clearly a joke, and posting it and not necessarily advertising it is interesting. It’s kind of under the radar and people just kind of found out about it by word of mouth.”
Dwyer said the senior pranks and traditions were more fun when everyone was included, and it was interesting realizing that these traditions could be some of their last times together as a class.
“I think that these traditions are more fun than people thought. Everyone gets involved and they are more inclined to be connected,” Dwyer said. “Everyone realizes that it’s our last opportunity to see the whole grade in one group, which makes it special.”
