A North Carolina principal is under fire after handing over the keys to the school to allow students to play a “senior prank” that created mass chaos and left teachers “in tears”.
Burns High principal Jennifer Aberly thought a few students were going to put up banners and balloons on Thursday last week – but arrived the next morning to find extensive damage to hallways and classrooms.
Students greased floors and doorknobs, put potted plants in toilets, stacked desks and scattered teachers’ belongings inside unattended.
“When I first saw this I was very upset,” school board member Danny Blanton told the Charlotte Observer. “It shouldn’t have happened, especially a headmaster giving permission to the kids and not being there to oversee it.”
The incident is the latest in a series of so-called “senior pranks” across the country where major destruction is being carried out with no regard for school property.
Students were allowed into a North Carolina high school for a “senior prank” in which major destruction was carried out over a period of hours.
A photo shows a plant placed directly inside a toilet bowl in one of the school’s bathrooms
Burns High principal Jennifer Aberly thought a few students were going to put up banners and balloons on Thursday to come in and find extensive damage throughout the school.
Parents, teachers and school board members in Lawndale, North Carolina are now expressing outrage at Aberly’s actions.
Photos of the destruction inside the school show the extent of the damage caused by the group of teenagers.
Students used “vaseline balls” to cover doorknobs and applied baby oil to hallway floors to make surfaces slippery when walking, Blanton said.
A photo shows a potted plant placed directly inside a toilet bowl in one of the school’s bathrooms.
The council member also said a microwave was thrown into the water.
Another photo shows chairs and desks taken out of classrooms and stacked on top of each other in hallways.
In arguably the most concerning image shared by the board member, ceiling tiles appear to have been knocked down as objects are strewn across a room.
Board member Ronnie Grigg said teachers had also entered their classrooms to find their own personal items removed from private and scattered locations.
“She should have been there to stop this,” Blanton said.
Videos were shared with the Charlotte Observer by Grigg and Blanton and reportedly showed a horde of students wandering the halls.
“Security was breached,” Grigg said. “The kids were in offices where they should never have been. I fought for safety and then it happens.”
Photos show destruction inside classrooms at Burns High School in Lawndale, North Carolina
“Security was breached,” said school board member Ronnie Grigg. “The children were in offices where they should never have been. I fought for safety, then it happens”
Burns High School in Cleveland County where the ‘senior prank’ took place last week
“This shouldn’t have happened, especially a principal giving permission to the kids and not supervising this,” board member Danny Blanton said.
In total, council members said the students were inside the school for several hours.
Blanton said he was only informed that Aberly had given the keys to the students in an email sent by the Cleveland County Superintendent. Stephen Fisher.
The email also said Aberly had spent most of the night cleaning up after the kids.
“But there was still a lot to do when the custodians and teachers got to work,” Blanton said of the damage inside the school.
“And the teachers were crying,” Grigg added.
DailyMail.com has contacted Aberly for a comment on the destruction committed by the students. The director did not respond to inquiries.
The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office is not investigating the incident because it was not reported, Capt. Jody Seagle told The Observer.
In mid-May, DailyMail.com reported on a senior prank that left a disabled student so traumatized he didn’t want to go back to school.
Louisiana’s Kimberly Mitchell shared her outrage on social media after students who were admitted to a school for a prank mocked her son with cerebral palsy.
In videos of the incident, students from Abbeville High School were seen riding around in his son Tay’Shawn Landry’s wheelchair.
In videos of another ‘senior prank’ in Louisiana, Abbeville High School students were seen riding around in his son Tay’s Shawn Landry’s wheelchair
Tay’Shawn Landry (pictured) who has cerebral palsy and requires a motorized wheelchair
A video taken at Abbeville high school was captioned: ‘POV. Got the school’s master key’ and shows two students riding the motorized wheelchair down a hallway
The video shows a student sitting in the chair and appearing to blur his speech and make squealing noises while another person records laughter.
‘Sir. Pranks are fun and all, but when you make fun of my disabled child and his stuff, IT BECOMES MY PROBLEM,’ Mitchell wrote on Facebook.
The students had allegedly been let into the school to prank but were granted access to a locked room where Landry’s wheelchair was located.
In other clips, a group of teenagers are seen wreaking havoc by covering a hallway in toilet paper and piling desks and chairs on top of each other.
