News: LI Seniors Punished for Prank
(Long Island, N.Y.) A group of fourteen students from East Rockaway High School have been denied participation in their graduation. Reports stated that the ceremony is scheduled for Friday, and that the excluded students compose about twelve percent of their graduating class. East Rockaway High School Class of 2011 will be missing a chunk of its one-hundred-and-nineteen seniors, and many involved with the school are outraged by the decision.
The decision to ban the students from graduation ceremonies came after a June 14th senior prank. Students engaged in a water balloon fight after school and off school grounds. Across the street from the school building, located on Ocean Avenue, the renegade students executed what they thought was a harmless tradition in marking the end to their high school careers.
Reports estimated that between twenty and forty students participated in the activity. At least one of the people involved claimed that the fourteen students were chosen by the administration because of their previous incidents of rule-breaking and defiance against school authority. Not surprisingly, the superintendent and school officials have painted a different picture of the ill-advised prank.
School officials claimed that the incident was insubordinate and reckless, and that it contributed to a risk of injury while disregarding safety. Prior to the prank, they had mailed notices to parents while explaining the penalties that would be enforced against senior jokesters. The first notice was sent in May and the second came just a month after.
Some of the penalties included banishment from the senior banquet, prom, graduation, and other end-of-the-year activities. An incident at the senior banquet caused five students to be suspended for three days, excluded from the senior picnic, and banned from the prom. Reports stated that students at the banquet initiated a food fight, and that three of the five suspended have also been penalized with graduation for their involvement in the water fight.
Balloons were thrown at the principal, assistant principal, and security guard, all of whom responded to the commotion. After exiting the building, East Rockaway High School Students walked into the direct line of the pranksters’ fire. According to reports, the security guard was unable to do his/her job; cars were hit as targets and traffic accumulated in the area.
The police were called to help keep the situation under control, but did little in the way of punishment after the gathering was broken up. Some of the people involved claimed that it was no big deal and wondered why the students later suffered harsher consequences. Several parents were outraged, believing that their children were punished for simply walking away and not doing enough to put an end to the prank.
Reports stated that some of the students could go as far as communicating their story to the American Civil Liberties union. They say that they hope to hold the school responsible even if the decision against graduation is not reversed.
