At my high school, a 4.0 GPA is not something to be celebrated but something that is expected. These high standards coupled with standardized testing and the expectation of well-balanced extracurriculars, created a competitive atmosphere amongst my graduating class; something understandable when we consider what is at stake: college acceptances. In my graduating class alone, 42 students were accepted to UC Berkeley, in addition to a handful of those accepted to Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Duke.
The competitive nature of our community, only further divided our class and gave us our notorious reputation for never being able to commit to anything; schoolwork and studying taking priority over anything else. Not only does our class hold the unspoken, record for tardies and absences in one school year, but for our freshman, sophomore, and junior year, our class placed dead last at every homecoming skit, earning us the title, of “less than spirited.” So when our class decided to devise a senior prank, many people were more than skeptical that this would become another failed attempt on our part. However, after days of planning, a pillow fight at the lunch area, and “bring your pet to school” day seemed feasible. It wasn’t until our principal promised consequences to those who planned to take part in either “prank” that our plans had ultimately, failed once again.However, this time, the seniors were all in agreement that the administration had taken these plans all too seriously; threatening to prevent us from walking at our upcoming graduation. A classmate of mine was allegedly told by our vice principal that “if she continued to dance in the quad [lunch area] she would not be walking at graduation, this coming Friday.” So, on Tuesday, when one of our class’ favorites decided to toss a water balloon at the juniors during lunch, and two of our vice principals escorted him to the office and guarded the water cooler, our senior class had, had enough with the administration's strict regulations.As a whole, the seniors at lunch got up behind the student, and followed him in a procession to the office, chanting “1-6, 1-6, 1-6”--the number of our graduation year. The administrators sensing our intended actions led the water-balloon-throwing student into the office and locked us out, in order to prevent us from entering the main office, essentially in protest of the student’s punishment. We--all 500 of us--decided to sit down on the ground outside the office. While more so an action of rebellion, it was hilarious none the less. Many students, including myself, snapped photos of the scene and shared it on social media.
Not long after our “sit-in,” a classmate of ours gained access to the pool deck and once again the crowd followed; this time with 13 students jumping into our school’s swimming pool, fully-clothed. Not long before the rest of us had decided to join in, the administration told everyone to vacate the premises, or “Friday would be put at risk.” We all then, exited the pool and headed to our lunch area where the juniors were prepared for a food-fight royale. Both classes--each large in number--took turns throwing Starbucks drinks, salads, and an apple that hit our vice principal square in the head. The administration who could do little, waited for the bell to ring, but as lunch ended, the juniors and seniors did not move, daring the other to go to class first. Eventually, we budged first, because well, we had finals and we had a reputation to uphold.Not long after, the students who had jumped in the pool, were given an hour and half detention with our principal the following morning and as far as administration was concerned, that lunchtime chaos was over. However, that night Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat blew up with cleverly placed puns and pictures. A classmate of mine--the notorious class clown--posted this on his Twitter, that same night:
And others soon followed:
