School Zone: Officials not laughing over pranks

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on May 23, 2008

If there is a funny end-of-the-year senior prank, Amherst Regional High School campus monitor Marc Keenan has yet to see it.

In a senior prank visited upon the school May 16, one or more perpetrators spray-painted two golf carts used by the athletic department to monitor games and glued them to the floor in front of the cafeteria.

Unless someone or several people stepped forward to claim responsibility for the action by May 22, Principal Mark Jackson said he would press criminal charges once the culprit was identified.

"This was a felony," Jackson said. "The level of the damage was over $250. Police charges are definitely in order."

He would reconsider pressing charges if someone came clean before the deadline, he said.

Jackson had assembled seniors earlier this month, advising them that there would be strict guidelines regarding pranks and that violators would not be able to attend end-of-the-year activities or graduation.

Keenan, who uses the golf carts to go back and forth between athletic events at the middle and high schools, said he is fed up with senior pranks.

"Every year (the students) ask me what's the funniest prank I ever saw, and so far I haven't seen a funny one," Keenan said.

Awards are on

ARHS Principal Mark Jackson got an earful after noting in an April newsletter that he had decided to suspend the annual practice of recognizing undergraduates for their achievements with dozens of certificates.

A "steady stream" of parents contacted him wondering why, he said.

Was it the cost of printing the certificates? A scheduling conflict with the high school auditorium? Was he trying to save teachers who have to decide to whom to give awards? Could it be that Jackson has a philosophical problem with the awards?

In fact, he was trying to save teachers time, Jackson later wrote to parents about the decision. But he had failed to consider the impact it would have on juniors who are applying for college who might want to list an award on their college applications, he acknowledged.

Long story short, Jackson reversed the decision and there will be awards, if not an awards ceremony, which is sometimes a drawn-out affair that can go on for three hours, even parents admitted.

Diana Spurgin, one of the concerned parents who had written Jackson, couldn't be happier with the decision, she said. "In my experience it's been a very rare thing for a school principal to admit that he made a mistake. I understand the pressures he's under as a principal of a really large school with people on all sides saying 'cut costs, cut costs,'" Spurgin said.

"I always thought that he was a pretty good guy, but I can't say enough about someone who is willing to stand up in front of the community and say, 'I made a mistake. I'm willing to make a change.'"

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.