Alicia Lourekas ’12 and Nicolette Weinbaum ’12
News Editor and Features Editor

On Friday, May 13, the boys of the senior class gave their last hoorah before leaving Staples for internships. About 40 senior boys sprinted through the halls dressed as bulls and matadors as Spanish bull fighting music blasted throughout the school intercom.

Earlier in the week, grade level assistant Jack McFarland was not aware of the senior prank, but he felt the senior class would act accordingly to their high standards.

“I know they want to leave with a certain amount of class, and have their prank be tastefully done,” McFarland said.

Although this year’s prank was deemed appropriate, in the past, many pranks had resulted in major consequences due to their disruption to the school environment.

“The worst prank at Staples was when they released rats and crickets; we had to have the whole place fumigated. The crickets stayed in between the walls and you could hear them [for a while],” McFarland said.

James Farnen, assistant principle to the senior class described an inappropriate prank being anything seriously disruptive to education and damage to school property.

“The inappropriate pranks have resulted in many consequences in the past. Police involvement, payment in the thousands, [and] loss of senior privileges,” Farnen said.

Zach Ventura ’11 had a strong role in planning the “running of the bulls”. He feels that it was important to get it approved by the administration because of the serious consequences.

“We wanted to make sure it was going to be something everyone enjoyed. No one wants a prank where people are upset,” Ventura said.

Although this year’s prank was approved, Farnen would rather see the tradition go elsewhere.

“We hope kids will remember this is a school environment and safety is important. They will have to face consequences. It’s a bad way to leave Staples,” Farnen said.

The senior prank has occurred every year for the 11 years that Farnen has worked at Staples.

“I’ve had four great years [with this senior class] and they ended on a high note.” McFarland said.