A North Carolina principal is under fire after handing over keys to the school to let students pull off 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 streamers and balloons on Thursday last week – but arrived the next morning to find significant damage in the hallways and classrooms.
Students greased floors and door handles, put potted plants in toilets, stacked desks, and scattered teachers’ personal belongings while inside unsupervised.
‘When I first saw that, I was very upset,’ school board member Danny Blanton told the Charlotte Observer. ‘That should not have happened, especially a principal giving kids authorization and then not being there supervising that.’
The incident is the latest in a series of so-called ‘senior pranks’ across the country where major destruction is carried out with little regard for school property.
Students were given entry into a North Carolina high school for a ‘senior prank’ in which major destruction was done over a period of several hours
One 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 streamers and balloons Thursday only to come in and find significant damage throughout the school
Parents, teachers, and board members at the Lawndale, North Carolina school are now expressing their outrage over Aberly’s actions.
Photos of the destruction inside the school shows the extent of the damage done by the group of teenagers.
Students used ‘globs of vaseline’ to cover door handles and slathered baby oil on hallway floors to make the surfaces slippery when walking, Blanton said.
One photo shows a potted plant placed directly inside a toilet bowl in one of the school’s bathrooms.
The board member also said a microwave was dropped into the water.
Another picture is of chairs and desks that were pulled out of classrooms and stacked on top of each other in the corridors.
In arguably the most concerning image shared by the board member, ceiling tiles appear to have been pulled down while items are littered around one room.
Board member Ronnie Grigg said teachers also came into their classrooms to find their own personal items removed from private locations and scattered.
‘She should have been there to stop that,’ Blanton said.
Videos were shared with the Charlotte Observer by Grigg and Blanton and reportedly show a horde of students roaming the hallways.
‘The security was breached,’ Grigg said. ‘Kids were in offices they never should have been in. I have been fighting hard for safety, and then this happens.’
Photos show the destruction inside classrooms at Burns High School in Lawndale, NC
‘The security was breached,’ school board member Ronnie Grigg said. ‘Kids were in offices they never should have been in. I have been fighting hard for safety, and then this happens’
Burns High School in Cleveland County where the ‘senior prank’ took place last week
‘That should not have happened, especially a principal giving kids authorization and then not being there supervising that,’ said board member Danny Blanton
In total, the board members said students were inside the school for several hours.
Blanton said he was only informed that Aberly had given the students the keys in an email sent out by Cleveland County Superintendent Stephen Fisher.
The email also stated that Aberly spent most of the night cleaning up after the kids.
‘But there was still a lot to be done when the custodians and teachers got to work,’ Blanton said of the damage inside the school.
‘And teachers were crying,’ Grigg added.
DailyMail.com reached out to Aberly for a comment on the destruction done by the students. The principal did not respond to inquiries.
The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office is not investigating this incident as it has not been reported, Capt. Jody Seagle told The Observer.
In mid-May, DailyMail.com reported on a senior prank that left one disabled student so traumatized he did not want to go back to school.
Kimberly Mitchell of Louisiana shared her outrage on social media after students who were let into a school for a prank mocked her son who has cerebral palsy.
In videos from that incident, students at Abbeville High School were seen riding around in her son Tay’Shawn Landry’s wheelchair.
In videos from another ‘senior prank’ in Louisiana students at Abbeville High School were seen riding around in her son Tay’Shawn Landry’s wheelchair
Tay’Shawn Landry (pictured) who has cerebral palsy and requires a motorized wheelchair
One video taken at Abbeville High School was captioned: ‘POV. You got the master key to the school’ and shows two students riding on the motorized wheelchair in a hallway
The video shows one student sitting in the chair and appearing to slur his speech and make squealing noises while another person recording laughs.
‘Sr. Pranks are fun and all but when you make fun of my disabled kid and his belongings then IT BECOMES MY PROBLEM,’ Mitchell wrote on Facebook.
The students had purportedly been let into the school to pull off the prank but gained access to a locked room where Landry’s wheelchair was housed.
In other clips, a group of teens are seen wreaking havoc by covering a hallway in toilet paper and stacking desks and chairs on top of each other.
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