Each graduating class leaves a mark on their school. Students through the years have come together to say a final goodbye to their school with pranks on their teachers and peers. Senior pranks have been a tradition for many years and tend to be carried out throughout the senior’s final week of school.

“The senior prank tradition is a fun way to finish senior year,” senior Delaney Shuffett said. “[The pranks] allow seniors to make some final memories with their friends before high school is over and everyone is leaving for their post-high school career plans.”

The different stunts that occur can ease everyone’s stress as finals quickly approach.

“Senior pranks just bring a bunch of smiles and laughter to peoples faces,” senior Molly Mayfield said. “Everyone loves having fun and taking their mind off of class work.”

The prank week changes each year because of the school implementing new rules to ensure safety for students. “My parents have done some pretty wild stuff like stacking the tires up the flagpole, or hiding all of the library reference books around the school,” Shuffett said. “Now we have to get our pranks pre-approved and I understand why but it’s not exactly a prank if other people are expecting it.”

The staff anticipates the pranks every year as the end of the school year approaches.

“Our kids at West High have always been respectful of property, time and things like that,” assistant principal Dr. Ed Dreyer said. “We understand pranks are traditional and you’re most likely to have a good prank if you’re doing something that doesn’t require hours of clean up, destroy something or disrupt class.”

The stunts can inspire future classes to get more creative when it is their turn to graduate.

“It takes a lot of creative minds and planning to be able to pull off some seriously funny pranks,” Shuffett said.

Sometimes the staff even participates in the different stunts.

“At west high we’ve had kids balloon Mr. Berry’s office,” Dr. Dreyer said. “We have kids pre arrange a day to have a senior breakfast or picnic in the parking lot and we go down and celebrate with them.”

The pranks are as memorable for the underclassmen as they are for the seniors.

“I remember [past seniors] spraying silly string in the hallway, water balloon fights in the parking lot, and watermelons in the hallways, high school musical scene in the lunchroom and playing Olympics in the lunchroom too,” Mayfield said.

Although the pranks are all fun and games, they can sometimes disrupt the learning environment.

“I think it gets to be about May and I think seniors are more worried about pranks as opposed to their studies and AP exams,” Dr. Dreyer said. “And with their studies, if they are focused on [pranks] then they are not focused on the things they should be focused on [like finals].”