100 Seniors Won’t Be Graduating After ‘Second Wave’ Turns Class Prank Into Something More Insidious

It is not unusual for graduating seniors across the country to plan a prank before bidding their high school years goodbye. But for some Sequoyah High School seniors in Madisonville, Tennessee, what started as a harmless idea turned into something far worse.

Local 8 Now reports:

Kody Hampton, a senior, says it started out as a Facebook group planning the traditional senior prank. He says almost half the class was a part of it. They showed up with glitter, balloons, toilet paper and fishing wire, intending to keep it fun and harmless.

“There were pretty much two waves of people who went through. The first wave, wasn’t bad, just simple pranks that did no harm.”

But just after 1:00 a.m. more students showed up, and it took a turn for the worst, he says.

The “second wave,” according to multiple witnesses, involved about 20 students committing acts of vandalism such as dumping garbage cans, urinating on walls, and letting crickets and chickens loose in the school:

Fox News reports a dead possum was left in the school as well:

First told they would be given community service, 100 students who were in the building at the time are now being barred from graduation, according to KSL.

Some students who say they didn’t participate in the destruction told the station that punishing everyone who was in the building is not fair.

“I don’t think my graduation should be taken away,” Shania Woods said. “They have surveillance video of the people who did this.”

Woods said she left the building before any of the vandalism occurred.

KSL also writes that three teachers have filed workman’s compensation claims due to the pranks. These claims may be a result of the “booby traps” some pranksters set up with marbles in the doorways causing teachers to slip, as reported by Local 8 Now.