Today when I walked into my bio class, I was surprised to see papers of all colors taped to pretty much every surface in the room. All the papers had "Get pumped for football!" (cause there's a football game tonight). It was funny an amusing, and people took pictures. Myself included.
Rumors floating around said that a couple of the volleyball girls had done it.
Around fourth period, lunch time, I heard rumors that my bio teacher (who also is the wood working teacher) had taken his wood shop class, gone into the girl's locker room, and taken all of our stuff and chairs and stacked them atop of the lockers.
And that was okay because it was funny.
It was a harmless prank.
But then, today when school let out, I was walking past several of the lockers and saw that all the volleyball girls who had helped with this morning's prank now had detention and wouldn't be allowed to their practice until they had scrubbed the boy's toilets. The detention was given by my bio teacher.
And I ask, "Why? It was a harmless prank."
Sure, it was annoying. But it was funny. No one was harmed during it. Getting a detention doesn't deserve this "crime" and having to clean the boy's toilets is uncalled for. I bet you five bucks that the wood working class won't get into trouble.
I remember my cousins (who used to go to my school a long time ago) telling me that they once brought three pigs to school, labeled them "1", "2", and "4" so that people would think there was a fourth pig. Then they released them into the school to wreck havoc.
Another time, a dove had flown into one of the windows and got knocked unconscious. As a joke, a couple of the boys put it into a girl's locker. And when the girl opened her locker later on, the bird flew out at her. Okay so it wasn't very humane towards the bird, but it was a joke.
And so the question I ask today is when is a prank or a joke taking it too far? When does something deserve punishment? And if so, what's the right punishment?
Is taking it too far when you pull a harmless prank that may annoy some people but otherwise isn't harmful? It is when you pick on the kid who can't defend him/herself? Is it calling names? It is stuffing confetti into your friend's locker so when they open it, all the confetti bursts out?
To me, a prank is taking it too far when it hurts someone else. Or when it causes pain to another person. But that's just me.
So, what do you think about all this?
Sincerely,
Sareh
First of all, that's ridiculous. I know pranks can sometimes go wrong but it was harmless.
ReplyDeleteSecond, pranks should be punished if there was an intent for something to go wrong or for something to get hurt.
I feel bad for those girls. What a stupid Bio teacher!
I know, it was ridiculous. I stared at the notes and I was tempted to march up to my Bio teacher and yell at him.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Unfortantly, I've been the victim of mean pranks before (first grade I got dragged on the ground by my ankles and then told I was going to get beat up if I moved or tried to get help. The teacher didn't stop them either. And the girls had told me they were my friends.), but I haven't seen or heard of anyone I know personally to have been the victim of a mean prank.
I heard later on last night after I wrote this post that the girls got out of it, but still.