By Emily Burke

Sentry Staff Reporter

When principal John Becchio of Santa Barbara High School walked into his office at 7:30 in the morning on June fourth, he was greeted by three mariachi singers, hired by students, serenading him with trumpets and guitars. This serenade continued for three hours as the band followed him around the school. How could this have been allowed to happen, you may ask? At most high schools, an event like this is only permitted once a year. It is the infamous senior prank.

Senior pranks are anticipated by every high school student as an opportunity to shake off the pressure of finals, placement tests and college applications and throw their energy into a fun joke to establish their legacy as a memorable class. Whether they took an active role in planning the prank or simply joined in at the last minute, most seniors take pride in their pranks. Even underclassmen look forward to the chaos, laughs and, of course, seeing the frantic adults trying to track down the senior pranksters. However, this year many students were disappointed after missing the senior prank altogether, only glimpsing a few scattered pictures on Twitter after the fact. This year, the senior class chose the classic approach of booby-trapping the school by tying yarn to doors and connecting the yarn to different parts of the hallway. This trick certainly would have turned out humorously when students arrived at school to find that they would have to jump, skip and hop through a maze of colored yarn just to get to first period by the bell. However, the trick was stopped in its tracks when the yarn was snipped to clear a path in the hallways. Many students had no idea what they had missed.  Tighter restrictions on student prank planning are the reasons for the depressing degradation of senior pranks. When students see that adults just get rid of the pranks before school even starts, they get discouraged. What is the point of planning an elaborate joke if no one is allowed to enjoy it?

Last year, students took over the hallways of the school, a mock attempt to catch up on the sleep they lost while they were busy getting good grades and meeting application deadlines.Seniors, and even the occasional junior, suddenly settled down for a nap that would quickly be interrupted by the flood of students leaving class. Unfortunately, this prank was met with more annoyance, especially from teachers, than laughter.

Sadly, the increasing mediocrity of senior pranks is a result of suffocating restrictions on student behavior. Recently, teachers and administrators have been cracking down on trivial issues like the dress code and phones in class. There is so much pressure on students to obey the constantly changing rules that it is making them hesitant to plan something elaborate enough to compete with past pranks.

Stories of other innocent senior pranks receiving extreme reactions by school officials are scaring students into smaller scale pranks. Earlier this year, seniors at Jordan-Elbridge High School in Jordan, New York pulled an almost identical prank to the one used by seniors last year. Referred to by the Jordan-Elbridge seniors as the “senior snuggle”, this innocent prank was blown out of proportion when teachers complained that it was disrupting their lessons and exam preparation. The students were threatened with the loss of privileges and senior events, and a senior breakfast event was actually cancelled. When the students failed to budge, officials pulled the fire alarms to force the seniors out of their positions. Although the prank was clearly not intended to harm anyone or jeopardize their peers’ performances on exams, they were punished for their actions.

Senior pranks are as much of a symbol of the end of high school as are prom and graduation. When seniors are planning a unique and unexpected prank to entertain not only themselves but the entire school, they should not have to worry about whether their prank will result in the cancellation of any senior events, especially prom. The only issue they should be worried about is which mariachi band would do a better job of providing a hilarious soundtrack for what is supposed to be an exciting departure from high school.