(Breaking news) Senior pranks go too far

All four high schools vandalized

Friday, May 15, 2009

All four county high schools were vandalized in the last three to four nights and officials think it was probably senior pranks.

"It happens this time of year. But the senior pranks have gone a bit too far and we're going to take action against them," said Sgt. Larry Titus, the school liaison for the Calvert County Sheriff's Office.

It has been mostly painting on school property, and "there's been some destruction of school property that may need to be replaced," he said.

"It's very disrespectful."

Some of the spray-painting can be costly to repair, he added.

Law enforcement will step up patrols at all the high schools and there is already surveillance at all the schools, Titus said. If a senior is caught, they might be denied participation in graduation activities, he said.

"They've done that for certain violations in the past," Titus said of the school board. Calls to the the Calvert County Board of Education were not immediately returned.

Titus asks parents to talk to their children about the seriousness of vandalizing schools.

Northern High School was vandalized on Thursday night with paint sprayed on the side of a trailer, on a display sign and on a door and window, said George Miller, principal of the school.

"Periodically we have these types of things happen, I don't know though if it was a senior prank," he said. "There's a difference between senior pranks and vandalism."

With the budget as it is, "It disappoints me to need to spend money on vandalism, it takes away from the good things we can do," he added.

The school does have some security cameras, and they are hoping to find out who vandalized the school, Miller said.

Patuxent High School was one of the luckier schools as everything that was done was cleaned up the morning it was done, with no damage to the school. Principal Nancy Highsmith said she was thankful that the seniors just used confetti, streamers, shoe polish on windows and chalk for their prank.

"I'm all for senior pranks, but when it gets to destruction, that crosses the line," she said. Highsmith did say she called all the seniors out of first period to clean the mess up.

charvat@somdnews.com