Over the years, the “senior prank” tradition has led to some serious and distasteful stunts at Colorado high schools.
In comparison, the joke that seniors played at Durango High School last weekend seems almost quaint. Someone dumped hay in the student common areas of the school.
What’s the harm of some hay in the halls? Apparently, the damage was substantial, as school administrators estimate it will cost $100,000 to clean up dangerous levels of mold spores from the hay that remains in the school.
Surely, the kids involved never imagined such an outcome, and we hope authorities keep that in mind as they clean up the building and investigate who was involved.
It would be a shame if the young people were punished so severely that it became a yoke they were consigned to wear for years to come.
We don’t take issue with the health concerns that are worrying school administrators — and the clean-up costs are immense. The Durango Herald has reported the mold levels in the school can be serious for those with asthma and other respiratory problems.
But we find it hard to believe that teen-agers would have known this. When you consider other senior pranks in recent years, the hay incident pales in comparison.
There was nothing humorous about the senior prank at Ponderosa High School in 2006 when someone dropped 45 chicks from a second-story balcony onto the school’s main office. That was cruel.
A few years earlier, seniors launched what were thought to be balloons filled with urine at other students at Englewood High School. They also let mice loose in the school hallways. Not funny.
The Durango prank isn’t even in the same universe. We hope the adults involved in investigating the hay caper are able to make the important distinction between foolishness and malice.
