As the school year comes to an end, high school seniors across the country prepare for their last hurrah, perhaps the pinnacle of humor in the high school experience: senior pranks. At Western, senior pranks have long been a tradition for the graduating class, allowing them to remain a part of Western lore even as they move on to bigger and better things. Every year, the buildup to the senior prank is palpable in the student body as the underclassmen speculate on what the prank could possibly be and seniors stealthily try to execute their plans. After a series of failed or totally unexecuted pranks, due to poor organization or the pandemic respectively, we here at the Western Hemisphere thought it would be valuable to look back on the last decade of pranks to best calibrate our assessment of the Class of 2023’s hoax, and perhaps check our expectations for the Class of 2024. Here is a ranking from best to worst of the most notable and memorable senior pranks in WAHS history.
1.) Reigning supreme in the history books is the Class of 2012, who decorated the front lawn with root beer “keggers.” Sara Dahl and Michelle Karpovich attest that beyond this writer’s opinion, it was certainly well received by the student body who appreciated the irony of there quite literally being kegs on school property. I would argue that this prank stands out a head above the rest because it was creative, because putting kegs of root beer in front of the school is far more revolutionary than just flipping desks and saran-wrapping furniture *cough cough.* With the superiority of this prank well established, this author is left asking only one question— what happened to all the root beer?
2.) 2015’s graduating class took advantage of their ten minutes of freedom during TAB as they filled the front lawn of all their furry friends, a successful execution of a classic senior prank. The seniors hosted a “Pet Parade,” showing off their dogs as they strutted their stuff through the grounds of Western. This prank was not only fun, but undeniably cute. Karpovich said “It was a very good time.”
3.) A decade ago, seniors forced the hand of juniors and those sophomores breaking Western parking regulations by joining the hoards of high schoolers driving to school by parallel parking across Western’s upper lot. The beauty of this prank lies in the fact that because it was so inherently disruptive to school functioning, the seniors effectively left their mark on the minds of Western’s student body, establishing their seniority once and for all.
4.) The Class of 2014 specifically pranked the principal, who, at the time, was particularly paranoid about fights, by faking a fight in the middle of the front lawn. Students gathered around and pretended to egg a fighting duo on, only for it to be revealed, when the principal pushed through the crowd to break up the fight, that the so-called fighting duo was playing rock-paper-scissors. While this prank could be considered unethical in the sense that it preyed on someone’s insecurities, the surprise factor and uniqueness of this prank earns it a place in the top five senior pranks in Western history.
5.) In fifth place lies the senior prank of 2022, which the student body widely considered to be a flop, both in the idea itself and its execution. The seniors had run their idea of filling the hallways with balloons by Mrs. Sublette, but the janitors were unaware, leaving the school spotless by 8 am when students began to arrive. Janitors were unable to clean up the front lawn however, so when students pulled up to school, the only sign that the school had been pranked was Western’s logo and “2022” spray painted across the lawn. While this prank had potential, its poor execution earns it fifth place.
6.) Squarely in sixth place lies the most recent prank, that of the Class of 2023, our reigning seniors. Their prank, which lacked a theme other than general chaos, consisted of saran wrapping the cafeteria and miscellaneous pieces of furniture in classrooms, planting a tree in Ms. Vinson’s room and a couch on top of the vending machine, and scattering pictures of Mr. Granger throughout the hallways. The prank had potential, but the pictures of Granger fell everywhere, creating a slipping hazard for hurried students, and the saran wrap was quickly torn down, creating a tripping hazard. They brought in a bouncy house and stashed it in the cafeteria, but a day after the rest of the prank had been executed, certainly diminishing its fun factor. After the flop that was the prank of 2022, I expected more from the Class of 2023.
7.) In 2019, the senior class took on a very creative and what would become a very smelly prank, hanging hot dogs from the ceilings all over the C wing. While it was certainly amusing and unexpected, teachers complained that the stench of unrefrigerated hotdogs lingered for weeks “It smelled absolutely horrible,” Dahl said. While some may think that a lasting impact is the sign of a good prank, I think it is safe to assume that this consequence was entirely unintended, and was detrimental to the functioning of classes, which in this author’s opinion, negates the prank’s cleverness.
