Senior pranks: battle of the sexes

When senior Garret Jones tickled his friend at lunch one day, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. The seemingly innocuous gesture caused the friend, fellow senior Sarah Kovar, to fall out of her chair. "I was really mad and I knew I had to get him back," Kovar says. And with that, the school-wide prank war had begun.

Soon, seniors Dana Ballard and Jordan Woodruff became entangled in the argument and a battle of the sexes was on. Kovar says that she and Ballard teamed up against Woodruff and Jones in what she described as an "official prank war," which kicked off when Jones padlocked Kovar's locker shut until security removed it.

The battle

A slap on the wrist from security didn't stop the pranksters; several days later, between first and third period, a queen-sized sheet could be seen hanging from the third floor staircase reading, "Jordan Woodruff, Prom with me? Love Garret Jones," a plan that Kovar says she and Ballard brewed over the weekend with fellow seniors Lily Fischer and Claire Liberman. "We all thought of it together," she says. "I lost sleep over it before it happened, I was so excited." Kovar says the result was everything she hoped it would be. "His face dropped," she says.

Quick to act, Jones says he took a paint marker and set out for revenge. Later that day, he used the marker to write all over the girls' cars before collaborating with Woodruff to make fliers. "We blew up really unattractive Facebook pictures of them," Jones laughs. Accompanying the pictures was, "For a good time call…" and a fake number. The next day, the fliers were drifting down from the third floor.

Kovar says that she and Ballard were looking forward to the boys' retaliation. "I was glad they had something ready for us the next day - it made me excited to go to school," Kovar says.

Administrative action

The girls themselves found the fliers amusing. "It could have been a lot worse," says Kovar. "It was funny to see our faces all over the floor." But while the girls were laughing at the comeback, the administration certainly wasn't. Fischer was sent to the administration for making light of the fliers, and soon all four of the girls found themselves in assistant principal Patricia Hurley's office. Hurley, who did not wish to comment, was worried about the effect the fliers might have on students who weren't aware of the prank war, according to the girls.

"She told us they were inappropriate and if we didn't tell her who made them, she'd call our parents," Ballard explains. Before parents were called though, the girls managed to get in touch with Jones and Woodruff, and Jones confessed. He explained that it was just a joke and promised to stop the pranks. "We just wanted to spice senior year up a little," Jones shrugs. Hurley ended up calling Jones's mother, but Ballard and Jones agree, the punishment "wasn't a big deal."

Although their pranks in school have been banned, the girls' spirits are not stifled. "Oh don't worry, we have something else planned for out of school," Lieberman says.