HS Senior prank gone bad : Friends involved Update

[neonerd]

If you pull this prank the day after you attend the graduation ceremony, and recieve your diploma, can they do anything to you? (other than call the cops)

meaning, can they fsck up your education record?

 

[FinalFantasy]

wow...

 

[moomoo40moo]

Originally posted by: monzi
If someone filled my house up with empty bags of air.....I would laugh, not have them arrested. Thats just silly. ITS A PRANK--be thankful they didnt faak up the school, or do stupid stuff like grafitti.

-Monzi

Ya, no kidding, if they would have spraipainted walls and stuff, then I could see them going to jail, but just filling up garbage bags with air? I think a proper punishment would have been to clean up all of the bags and help clean up after graduation and stuff. I think that would have been good enough. Now there are people getting lawyers, and its on talkshows, and on the radio and its getting blown way up. Good night everybody!

 

[sciencewhiz]

Originally posted by: neonerd
If you pull this prank the day after you attend the graduation ceremony, and recieve your diploma, can they do anything to you? (other than call the cops)

You rarely, if ever, receive your diploma at the graduation ceremony.

 

[jpeyton]

What a load of bullsh1t.

That prank was harmless...garbage bags filled with air.

And they got thrown in jail for it?

Common sense is a rare commodity in America.

 

[booger711]

thats stupid

 

[sandman018]

lol that's funny/lame. I used to live south of here, and wausau tends to be a strict district IMO, especially DC Everest

 

[thomsbrain]

they still got to graduate, they just didn't get to walk in the ceremony. i think the punishment fits the crime.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
they still got to graduate, they just didn't get to walk in the ceremony. i think the punishment fits the crime.

Dame straght!!:thumbsup:

 

[moomoo40moo]

Another article added.

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: broon
If you're going to risk a prank you need to be willing to suffer the consequences if caught. Last I heard breaking and entering is a crime.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: myusername

Originally posted by: DrPizza
As I informed my students, nobody loves a good practical joke more than me...
but (again)
1. Can't break the law, that includes breaking into places..
2. Can't harm or risk harm to anyone, including emotional harm
3. Has to be creative; a bucket of water falling from a door is NOT creative
4. Can't cause someone a hardship, such as having to clean up some sort of mess.

edit: while they broke rule #1, I still think the school over-reacted.

The law they broke was disorderly conduct, which refers only to the fact that they were playing a practical joke at all - not the nature of the joke or when/where/how it was played.

If this example does not pass your qualifications for #1, Dr. Pizza, then you need to revise your criteria and explain to your students that you simply do not approve of any kind of practical jokes/senior pranks. period.

Personally, I'd consider it over-zealous application of the law. And, I await the outcome in court to see if charges are dismissed or the charges are actually pursued.

edit:

Legal Dictionary
dis·or·der·ly con·duct
n.

Conduct that is likely to lead to a disturbance of the public peace or that offends public decency; also The petty offense of engaging in disorderly conduct compare breach of the peace
- The term disorderly conduct is used in statutes to identify various acts against the public peace. It has been held to include the use of obscene language in public, the blocking of public ways, and the making of threats. A statute must identify acts that constitute disorderly conduct with sufficient clarity in order to avoid being held unconstitutional because of vagueness.

filling a hallway with giant balloons is going to lead to a disturbance of the public peace? I hardly think so. Indecent? Obviously not.

So, as I said, it's a reach to charge them with disorderly conduct. Door was open; wasn't breaking and entering.

Or, is someone suggesting that any practical joke at all is necessarily "disorderly conduct" because it has the potential to disturb the public peace. Oh No! Fake plastic spider on someone's desk... they scream... off to jail for the perpetrator of that disorderly conduct (because clearly, when the person screamed, it disturbed the public peace.)