Colorado Seniors Narrowly Avoid Charges in Prank Debacle
I'm not much of a prankster, myself. While I can appreciate a good prank, so long as it isn't on me, I'm not enough of a sadist to ever actually perpetrate one on anybody, personally. It's just not one of my skills, and I really don't get the appeal.
Senior pranks have always made even less sense to me. I can only assume a tradition allowing high school seniors to play jokes on people in May is an effort to allow young adults a chance to blow off steam before entering the real world. Unfortunately, these pranks often go wrong, and as is often the case with teenagers, lead to serious consequences that you really should have seen coming.
You see on May 4th, 18 students from Woodland Park and Manitou High Schools decided to swap places for the day as their senior prank. The intention was for each of the swapped students to just pretend to be each other for the day, and by all accounts, they were quite open with what they were doing when questioned by faculty. Clearly, none of the kids thought they were doing anything wrong, and most of their parents just thought it was a silly prank.
Unfortunately, school administrators didn't find the joke all that funny, particularly the Principal from Woodland Park. The Manitou students that were on the Woodland Park campus actually ended up being rounded up and ticketed after the Principal involved the police. Ultimately, the local DA declined to actually bring charges against any of the students, and many parents are saying that Woodland Park's Principal acted too harshly.
Personally, I don't think high school students should have to deal with the legal system over a prank that doesn't lead to death, injury, or damage to other people's property. That being said, and in the world we live in now, I also feel like it should have been obvious that students trying to 'Undercover Boss' a school campus weren't going to land the way they wanted it to.