Interviews by: Vicky Liu ‘20, News and Features Reporter
In light of the wave of emotions surrounding the recent senior prank (which, as a refresher, involved a small group of seniors entering the Fannie Cox Center late at night the day before their last day on campus to move all of the classroom chairs in the entire building into the atrium and restrooms, as well as putting a flock of balloons in the atrium), FOCUS reached out to various members of our community to hear their opinions. Read them below:
“I think [the prank] was a little overboard [and] was inconvenient for others. I also heard that the seniors promised the administration that they weren’t gonna have a prank, but they actually did. I think that’s problematic. Other than that, I think it’s good to have a senior prank, as long as everybody is moderately okay with it.” - Jack Li ‘20
“It’s kinda [sic] unfair for the people who didn’t know they had to clean up. They had no way of knowing. I understand that. For the most part, it was a disturbance and wasn’t that funny. It was funny that it happened. In the end, it was a disturbance for a lot of people. I could see a lot of people getting upset.” --- Naim Saleem ‘19
FOCUS also reached out to Mr. MacFarlane, our Dean of Students. He shared three main thoughts:
“We do understand how senior classes seem to feel pressure to perform this ritual (and ‘senior skip day’ too) as part of an apparent tradition so as not to seem ‘lame.’ Also, I know seniors are not at all wanting to inconvenience us or make us feel unappreciated. Often, they try even to give us a heads up or include us in the planning in some way. No matter what the intentions are, though, these typically do inconvenience many of us and lead to some temporary bruised feelings, which then become compounded on the students' side because they are frustrated or disappointed at our ‘overreaction, surprised that we don't ‘get it’ or aren't willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in some way. There are pranks that can feel more gentle and funny. [Once] the seniors cooked breakfast for everybody. It doesn’t really seem like a prank [but it was] a nice gesture. They surprised us in a nice way rather than a hassle.”
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