I believe that the senior prank is harmless and enjoyable. No one is getting hurt in the activities or pranks that are being placed by the seniors, which simply includes a water balloon fight. That being said, I understand students who wish to steer clear of the event but there are ways to stay away from it.

From my past experience seeing the water fight, I’ve never seen anyone complain to the extent that they shouldn’t do it anymore. Compared to other schools’ senior pranks, ours is harmless. At Park, no one is doing anything illegal or harming the school. In addition, the annual water fight is something seniors look forward to.

Senior pranks should continue at Park. It’s a tradition, it’s a goodbye and it’s one last chance for seniors to have their last moment at Park. This is their last year at Park and this prank should be a memorable moment for seniors to do something fun for their last week of school. I do agree that some pranks go to the extreme and have major consequences, but this is not one of them. It’s an enjoyable moment for seniors and I am happy that it’s become a tradition at Park.  

While there are alternatives, there aren’t any that are better than our current tradition. It’s the end of school, it’s warm and hot out, and what better way is there to cool you off than the senior prank. Furthermore, everyone is involved. Kids from other grades get involved and other alternative pranks don’t seem as fun. The senior prank is one of few student-led events that administration has little to no say in, which makes it more fun. Other ideas like the senior parking prank aren’t as inclusive or as fun. If everyone loves this water balloon fight, then why get rid of it? No one is complaining about it, so what’s the big issue? While people may think that alternatives are safer, our current prank hasn’t led to serious injury.

The process of trying to change the senior prank is extremely random. There are more important issues that Park faces than a harmless senior prank. As an underclassmen, I can only assume that seniors would be disappointed in the prank change. It’s not that big of an issue for people to be stressing that much over, unless it causes harm to students or staff. Over the last couple of years, this prank has started no issues and I don’t believe any will occur.

Overall, the senior prank shouldn’t be looked down upon because it’s proven to be harmless and people look forward to it. Getting rid of it would only cause unnecessary disappointment from the senior class, if no one in the first place wanted it to be changed.

While it may be fun for seniors to pelt all the grades below them with water balloons on their last day of school, I have never seen it that way. Instead I see a terror inducing act of celebration that goes against the code of conduct the school says it’s committed to. 

On the face of it, the water fight sounds like fun. The seniors get to incite a water fight as their last hoorah in high school. They get to band together as one grade, soaking the rest of the students and staff with water. In reality, this one-sided water fight is the seniors’ last chance to annoy everyone, leaving their mark in the least flattering way possible. 

I don’t have anything against the seniors enjoying their last day of high school, but when that fun puts their classmates’ lives in danger, issues arise.

My sister, a senior at the time, had told me she wouldn’t be at school that day, not because she didn’t want to partake in the “fun,” but because doing so could kill her. My sister has a deadly latex allergy, and a few weeks before COVID lockdown, she was rushed to the ER because she came into contact with a balloon in a classroom. The school has a no-latex-balloon policy, but the school warned her they couldn’t enforce that policy well enough to keep her safe on what was supposed to be her last day of high school. 

There are other policies in the student handbook the water fight violates, mainly the section regarding hazing. The school defines hazing “as the use of force or coercion to negatively affect others. This applies to any of the following behaviors: teasing, intimidating, defaming, threatening, terrorizing or retaliation.” I can attest to the intimidating nature of the water fight, plus the sense of coercion, feeling like we have to endure being pelted with water balloons and being sprayed with water guns because the people soaking us are seniors. 

The water fight goes against what the school says it stands for, but it is a longstanding tradition many people are not ready to leave behind. There should be a way of opting out of this tradition, allowing the seniors to have their fun without forcing everyone else to either skip school to avoid it or suffer the consequences. This could be done by giving the seniors a designated area for their water fight like the field, track or courtyard, or simply barring them from being in the parking lot or by the doors waiting for people to leave school.