STHS prank results in suspensions
South Tahoe High School students involved in a senior prank the first week of school have been suspended for three days, will have to pay to clean up the mess and are not allowed to park on campus.
No permanent damage was done with writing “class of 2011” in water soluble chalk at the front of the school.
The district is not releasing the names of the students involved or saying how many were suspended. No one was arrested.
“We met with students regularly last year and provided them a structure to work with staff when planning and implementing any ‘school spirited’ events,” Principal Ivone Larson said. “Unfortunately, students did not follow this process. Staff members met with some of the students involved the Friday prior and advised the students of consequences.”
— Compiled by Kathryn Reed
This sounds way over blown to me, including admin calling it a prank.
I agree with Steven.
That’s ALL they wrote? In water-soluble chalk?
Serious over-reaction by the administration.
That is ridiculous.
These school administrators are lucky they weren’t around when I was in high school. They would have really had something to deal with, like the Volkswagen lifted overnight via crane and dropped into the school pool.
“Class of 2011” scrawled in water-soluble chalk on the school grounds sounds to me like clean, fun, harmless school spirit, not a disciplinary event.
As a parent of one of those seniors who were suspended for carrying on the tradition of all seniors at South Tahoe High since anyone can remember, I also believe the consequences handed out by the school administrators to be over the top. The story doesn’t include the seniors being shouted at, threatened and treated like criminals, even though there was no permanent damage done to the school. Pulling their parking permits is a second, uncalled-for punishment. I guess that was added to make the administrators feel good. These administrators need to get some perspective. Exercising their authority to be mean-spirited with these young people over their harmless prank makes me wonder what kind of people we have in charge over there. No amount of exaggerating about what these kids did is going to convince anybody that this punishment was justifiable. I object! These are good kids!
Every adult I’ve spoken with has relayed stories of their own senior pranks and if the punishment handed out by these school leaders was appropriate, then some of the folks I spoke with would still be in jail for what they did. Fortunately, they apparently had administrators that had a grip on their emotions and some perspective regarding high school tradition.
Thanks.
-A parent
Absolutely ridiculous! When and why did this town get so rigid!! Relax
Well if it’s just a prank why don’t you parents go and paint class of 2011 on your own home? It doesn’t take time away from the students who are trying to study. And it doesn’t take my tax dollars to clean up the mess. Comprende?
I agree with “A Parent” above. The school administrators over-reacted to a senior tradition. This class made a huge effort to avoid any damage to the school property. This is an expression of school spirit, and pride in their class,and as such, should not have been punished so severely. Furthermore, they should have allowed the kids to do the clean-up. And why are we not allowing pep rally’s, and other expressions of school pride and spirit? Do we want them engaged in their school, and showing ownership? Or are we encouraging apathy which will extend into the academic side?
Over-reacting seems to be the norm now-a-days. It looks like the obligitory slap on the hand no longer works with our youth or adults for that matter. In your face over the top is how we communicate today. From “roadrage” to harmless school sprit.
The school did nothing last year when I pointed out seeing 10 kids smoking pot behind Raleys. Now, we have a group of great kids, excited for their senior year, who tried to make their statement of school pride. They were conscious of all the new building and did not touch them. They wrote 2011 with plastic forks and balloons. They just tried to announce,”Hey look at us! We are the 2011 seniors and we rock!” We need to promote spirit in our kids. We need to get excited that they are about to move on to College and promote healthy school spirit. The school has now just taught the kids that we do not care about them. The admin has now implied by their reactions that that all we care about is the new buildings, state testing, and more funding. We need to care for the students. This is their time, their opportunities, their school.
Sounds like there might be a good lesson in here, admitting that you (administration) over reacted, and it’s ok to say so. We don’t need to stay the course with our decisions, as we have more time to think about things, and gather more feedback sometimes we discover we may be wrong. This is a good lesson to teach, stubbornness is usually not a good thing.