Half of Seniors to Miss Graduation Over 'Prank'

Criminal charges have also been filed
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 12, 2016 7:53 AM CDT
Half of Seniors to Miss Graduation Over 'Prank'
School officials weren't laughing.   (Shutterstock)

Students at Osceola High School in Arkansas call it a senior prank. Officials call it trashing the school. Whatever the label, half of the 2016 class will miss graduation and some are facing criminal charges. Osceola Superintendent Michael Cox tells KAIT that 37 of 80 seniors broke into the school Sunday night, threw cereal in the hallways, spray-painted walls, and trashed classrooms. Student Jamieon Anderson says school officials also accuse seniors of leaving human excrement on the floor and crickets hopping around, per WREG. One student admits to peeing in a classroom, but it was mostly just "a lot of stuff on the floor," says Anderson. "It was a little spray paint, but it wasn't much."

Those involved have been handed five-day suspensions, meaning they won't get to attend graduation on Friday; criminal charges have also been filed, says Cox. "Half of our families (are) coming from out of state, and I don't know how I'm going to tell my grandma I am not walking the stage," says Anderson. "It wasn't like we went to school and just broke everything." However, there might not be a ceremony at all. The students who didn't participate in the prank are considering boycotting the event. "We could have cleaned it up. It was just a prank," says a student. A parent says the seniors deserve "to suffer the consequences," but another says possible community service is punishment enough. (A prank involving 72,000 ladybugs also led to charges.)

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