‘Senior prank went too far:’ Vandalism forces Mt. Vernon High School students to take e-learning day

MOUNT VERNON, Ill. (KFVS) - Mount Vernon Township High School students were not in the classroom on Wednesday, May 10.

According to Superintendent Melanie Andrews, the decision to call off in-person classes was made for safety reasons.

She said a “Senior prank went too far.”

Administrators and Andrews got to the high school around 5:30 a.m. after getting a notification that something was amiss and saw very littered hallways.

They discovered toilet paper, shredded paper, disposable cups and Post-It Notes throughout the hallways, but that is also when they saw some of the floors were slick.

Supt. Andrews said some students participating in a senior prank early Wednesday morning covered some hallway floors and stairways with body lotion and baby oil.

This caused the floors and steps to be unsafe.

Andrews explained that after evaluating the situation, she realized there was no way staff could clean up the extensive mess in time for school.

The school resource officer was also notified about the vandalism.

Andrews said the school has very good surveillance cameras, and they are in the process of reviewing what took place.

They are working to find out how the students got into the building, how many participated and who.

Andrews said they are also working to identify the persons responsible for causing the slick flooring.

She said the cleanup took a couple of hours and no permanent damage was done.

No report has been filed with police at this time.

Anyone with information about the vandalism is urged to notify school administrators.

Andrews said the prank has ruined Senior Send-off Day. The event has been canceled.

Wednesday was supposed to be the last day for seniors at MVTHS, but those final goodbyes to teachers, staff and fellow classmates will sadly not take place.

“I was excited to come and see my friends and tell them bye and talk to my teachers again for the last time. So, yeah, I’m upset about it, but I understand what they had to do so,” said Macey Prosise, senior at MVTHS.

Her fellow classmate Jude Erasmus said his classmates went too far.

“I was aware that seniors were going to be doing pranks and that pranks were approved by admin. But, once again, I think that the class just took it way too far and that’s what everyone is upset about,” he explained.

Andrews stressed the prank does not represent the 1,200 students at the high school.

“I think senior pranks can be held in good fun,” Superintendent Andrews added. “We typically have a lot of students come in and they’ll ask permission to do something and sometimes we participate in some of those fun pranks. But this one was one that took a turn for the worst. Students did not have permission to be in the building and we certainly don’t want this to happen again.”

Now, if they can figure out who the culprits are, Andrews said there could be some students not participating in the graduation ceremony on May 20.

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