Associate Principal Volker Engel remembers when senior pranksters at Barrington High School let a hog run wild in a busy hallway on one of the last days of school. At the end of another school year, a student drove his motorcycle through the hallowed halls to stick it to administrators.
It used to be that when such shenanigans happened after final exams and the celebratory senior gatherings, school administrators could do little more than slap students on the wrist for bad behavior. But times have changed.
In 1991, with pranks escalating and attendance in the final months of school dropping to intolerable levels, Barrington High School established a policy that has whipped students into shape: Seniors with good behavior and attendance records who also carry at least a C grade-point average can avoid final exams as long as no one in the senior class does anything crazy in the last days of the semester.
Barrington was among the first local high schools to crack down on end-of-the-year pranks with this zero-tolerance philosophy.
“If people do not abide by the rules, I don’t have any problem dealing with them,” Engel said. “Classes watch and try to outdo each other. You can’t have it.”
These days, administrators also aren’t afraid to play the ultimate trump cards–banning students from graduation ceremonies or even summoning students to court so a judge can dole out the punishment.
Take the case of four Rolling Meadows High School graduates who streaked through school last week, where classes for freshmen, sophomores and juniors still were in session. Each graduate now faces a July court date and fines of up to $500 apiece.
And when 14 students released more than 20 mice into a busy Palatine High School hallway June 4, administrators banned some from participating in the graduation ceremony, though they still received diplomas.
Some of the students’ parents were outraged that their children wouldn’t don caps and gowns.
Cathy Zimmerman said she is devastated that her son could not graduate with his friends. His only crime, she said, was contributing $2 toward the purchase of the mice.
“Graduation was taken away because of one mistake in judgment,” she said.
But others see it differently.
“Participating in a graduation ceremony is a privilege, not a right,” Engel said.
Rolling Meadows Deputy Police Chief Doug Larsson said even seemingly frivolous shenanigans can “offend the public conscience.” “People expect a certain amount of order in society and decorum in schools,” he said.
So will students cram the halls of justice for squeezing toothpaste into lockers and smearing shaving cream on their pals?
“The juvenile pranks have to be treated on a case-by-case basis,” Larsson said. “These were seniors out of the district control. We’ll bring in the court and the message is clear for next year: This will not be tolerated.”
Not every administrator agrees. Bill Geist, assistant principal at Schaumburg High School, said he thinks yanking a student from graduation ceremonies punishes parents instead. At his school this month, students sneaked in a few mice and spray-painted a part of the building after graduation ceremonies, but no one was caught.
“In my mind, the ceremony would be the last thing you’d want to take away for something silly and immature,” he said.”Zero tolerance might be easier administratively . . . but in any situation, you have to look at the whole picture and the person who did it. I still think common sense is important.”
