The aftermath of the infamous 2023 “senior prank” that led to the class’s cancellation of Senior Farewell.

Senior prank is a tradition that has been around far longer than I have. It’s a day where the seniors come to the school when no one is here to pull some fun prank for the next day when everyone comes in. They aren’t supposed to tell anyone what they’re doing, but that doesn’t slide anymore. 

After the 2023 incident, we’re no longer “allowed” to have a senior prank;  it’s said if a prank is done without permission our “senior farewell will be taken away,” says Principal Lisa Nemeth. Senior farewell is the senior’s last walk through the school before they graduate; Their final look at the place they grew up in for four years. Some think of it as happy to get out and others reminisce about the good times they had. Either way, they should be permitted that last walk no matter what. 

I asked senior class president Malina Dinis how she feels about not being able to continue the tradition of senior pranks because of past year experience. Part of what she told me was that she believes if there was a “warning ahead of time that many events will be canceled or taken away because of misbehavior, that the whole problem could’ve been avoided.”  

That being said I guess it’s more just common sense to not trash your school. However the situation could’ve been handled much differently as Dinis pointed out.

What Happened?

 The class of 2023 seniors were let into the school – some by janitors others by classmates – at night and trashed the place, leaving toilet paper, streamers, balloons, glitter, etc. spread throughout the halls. Other things occurred like letting crickets loose in the teacher’s lounge as well as things being broken in there. A lot of this was captured in photos and on video.

The things they did that night didn’t even come out to being a prank; it was vandalism. This led to the harsh consequences of losing Senior Farewell privileges.

Dinis expressed to me that she understands why administrators did what they did because “the class of 2023 took their prank to a whole new level.” Except even though “kids chose to to take this prank a bit far” there are ways they now could have worked around those issues.

The current seniors aren’t very pleased with how it turned out for them, especially considering the measures they were willing to go to, to be able to make their simple, harmless, senior prank happen. As Dinis explained, “we were going to meet with Mrs. Nemeth and discuss it with her before taking action.” 

This is reasonable so no one gets in trouble again. Though giving away the surprise does ruin the fact that it’s a prank, but if that’s what they have to do then might as well. 

I also spoke to Adam Connors, another class of 2024 member about whether or not he thinks senior prank is a tradition that should be kept around.

He agreed with Dinis saying “it’s a tradition that should be kept around as long as it doesn’t get carried away.” He told me how he understands how much it got out of hand last year but that “each class is different” and overall he thinks “You cannot take things away from people that had nothing to do with it.”  

Dinis shared how she “[hopes] this tradition does come back to Ludlow High School, but [she does] wish the senior class of 2024 would’ve gotten this experience.” I feel bad for them. I also cannot help but think how this tradition will be taken away from future classes as well. 

Us juniors won’t be able to have one for our senior year. Rising senior Leah LaFever said, “it’s not fair because the actions of another class should not define the ones coming up, and that we should get a chance to prove ourselves into having a nice senior prank.” 

She also mentioned how if we do a senior prank, that not getting our walk as seniors is a “crazy” punishment because it’s such a big memory for seniors. Showing how not only are seniors now upset about this getting taken, but upcoming ones think it’s quite unfair as well. 

As a rising senior as well, I am affected by this also; I think that it’s unfair for the seniors now and the future classes to have this fun little long lived tradition be taken away because of something others were accountable for. Yes, I understand where the punishment came from because what they did was taken out of proportion but I do not think that this should reflect poorly on the other classes. Especially because there are many ways that all could have been avoided and I think passing the idea by the principle first would have been the best place to start.

Will we ever get it back?

Will we?  I’m not sure, but I sure hope we do. This isn’t the first case where something has been taken from us, or there has been some tradition our school doesn’t participate in because of misbehavior. Usually we never get those privileges back. Except this is a minor inconvenience done by one graduating class, which I don’t think should effect the rest of us.