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The 8 Dumbest Pranks Pulled By High Schoolers

by L. Turner

High school administrators have no time for dancing around maypoles, drowning themselves in margaritas, and celebrating the coming of spring like the rest of us. Nay — principals, deans, and other disciplinarians have no time for spring fever, because with graduation season comes pranking season. Senior pranks are an American high school tradition, and like most American high school traditions, they frequently result in arrest. Which is something 62 prank-happy high school seniors in New Jersey learned the hard way on Thursday morning, when they were arrested for a senior prank.

The seniors wound up in handcuffs after breaking into Teaneck High School, turning over chairs, putting petroleum jelly on the doorknobs, and, for good measure, dousing the hallways in their own urine. Pro tip: As smelly as your high school's hallways may be, urine will not improve them.

Burglary is not looked upon kindly by high school administrators, as I personally learned after being the only person in my high school class apprehended at the scene of our attempted prank (it was a full-scale failure). A security officer grabbed my jacket when I, feeling like a secret agent, shrugged out of the night-black garment and ran as fast as I could (very slowly) to my car, only to realize my cell phone was in the apprehended coat pocket. Though I was not arrested, the experience of reclaiming one's cell phone and jacket from a grouchy school security officer surrounded by confiscated piles of prank-related petroleum jelly and Icy Hot is not something I'd recommend.

Dear Dean: I did not purchase nor condone the use of petroleum jelly nor Icy Hot in that prank.

With those cautionary points in mind, here are the top eight ways to get arrested while annoying your school's fun-killing administrators...

1. Peeing in the Halls

Peeing in school hallways is apparently really fun until you get arrested, as the 62 seniors at Teaneck High learned the hard way.

2. Spray Painting

Vandalism could get you landed with a felony charge, as these students learned after a seemingly harmless prank involving toilet paper and shaving cream somehow devolved into spray painting the halls and leaving a crib full of live chickens inside Riverside Brookfield High School in Illinois.

3. A Flash Mob

This one seems more harmless than harmful, and parents reportedly thought police overreacted when three students in Hoffman Estates, Illinois were arrested after a senior prank involving a flash mob, glitter, and silly string. More were barred from attending their prom or graduation.

4. A Suspicious Package

It doesn't matter if it just contains a blow-up sex doll. Leaving a suspicious package in your school is not the brightest idea. You could end up in handcuffs and facing eight years in prison, as this Indiana high school senior learned in 2011. (He eventually got the charges expunged after the ridiculously stiff sentence he faced caused an uproar.)

5. Causing Significant Damage

Four students at Fillmore High School in California were arrested in 2012 for allegedly causing more than $2,000 worth of damage to locks on the school's doors.

6. Lining the Hallways with Styrofoam Cups

Yup, even this can get you arrested. Ten cops, three police dogs, and a helicopter were sent to a Florida school in 2011 to respond to a break-in, only to find seniors busy lining the hallways with styrofoam cups filled with water. The seniors were — you guessed it — arrested.

7. Spraying the Fire Extinguishers Everywhere

This one didn't turn out so well for eight Alabama students, who lined their school's hallways with eggs, flour, and fire extinguisher fluid in 2012. The accident reportedly cost about $10,000 to clean up and created a big "slip-and-fall" hazard, according to Fox affiliate WBRC.

8. Throwing Water Balloons

The administrators at Raleigh, North Carolina's Enloe High School sound excessively disciplinarian. Eight students were arrested last year for planning to hurl water balloons at students. The school security officer told North Carolina's WRAL that the prank could've caused fights, which sounds like a bit of a stretch to us.

Somebody gets hit with a water balloon. They don't like it. So, the potential is there for there to be a physical altercation.

If there's a pattern here, it's definitely not overreacting administrators. Seniors, you have been warned.