A group of seniors have been told they won’t be able to walk at their graduation because of pranks they played at the school on June 6 and students have started a twitter-based protest.
A letter sent to parents from the school says, “Throughout the day we experienced a number of unfortunate events that caused a major disruption to our school day.”
Principal William Bates told parents that he was notified by the building engineer at about 5 a.m. that the exterior of the building had been vandalized with paint. The students also poured baby oil on the floors in the main hallway, in the gym lobby and on two staircases.
The letter says students also pulled a fire alarm causing the entire school to evacuate on a day that students were scheduled to take SOLs and final exams. One person with knowledge of the incidents told Patch the fire alarm was not pulled by a senior.
“Today’s incidents caused a major safety concern for every student and adult in the building,” Bates’ letter says. “Any student who is caught engaging in these types of disruptive behaviors will face a suspension from the school and possible recommendation for expulsion.”
“Any student who disengages a fire alarm will be recommended for expulsion and charged by the police. Seniors caught engaging in these types of disruptive behaviors will not be permitted to participate in any of the scheduled graduation activities.”
NBC Channel 4 reports that the prank was pulled by Herndon senior Ashkan Naderi and five of his friends, but that they had nothing to do with the fire alarm being pulled. They have been suspended. Three of them, including Naderi have been banned from walking across the stage at Thursday's graduation.
The group of boys and their classmates are trying to protest via Twitter with the hash tags #lettheboyswalk and #lettheboyswalk2012. Students also wore T-shirts to school with the hashtagged phrase on them, but some students said on Twitter the administration made them take the shirts off.
Naderi told NBC 4 that they have attorneys that are looking into the controversy for them. (Watch Naderi's statement on video from NBC4 here.)
Note: This story was updated at 2:18 p.m. to clarify that the fire alarm was not pulled by a senior student, according to one source.
Update - June 11, 4:15 p.m.: The Fairfax Times is reporting that Naderi and others involved take responsibility for the baby oil only, and the fire alarm and spray paint were separate incidents.
A sample of the messages on Twitter:
•LaurOdactyl: Would it honestly be funny if a pregnant woman slipped down the stairs and lost her baby? No. Moronic teen boys. Don't #lettheboyswalk
Then LaurOdactyl posted: The GUYS INVOLVED knew a prank like that wouldn't be tolerated, STILL did it, & are trying to sue for being punished. Don't #lettheboyswalk
• marieantwanett: #LetTheBoysWalk , i would walk and every senior shake bates hand with baby oil !!
• JayKayEveryday: If the boys don't get to walk after all of this I along with the rest of the school will be extremely pissed. #LetTheBoysWalk2012
• Shaybaybayy: @shooomaker and @68AndI0U1 deserve to walk. You wait practically your whole life for graduation. #LetTheBoysWalk2012
• shooomaker: I just want to GRADUATE. Like I'm not trying to escape punishment, but make it anything other than not walking...that's alllll I want
• 68AndI0U1: We need everyone to keep tweeting #LetTheBoysWalk Please & Thank You!
• DoogieDuges19: People who don't think @shooomaker and @68AndI0U1 should walk are either underclassmen or don't know either of these boys well enough.
• Chimpansteen19: #lettheboyswalk2012 is so pointless. vandalizing your school is such a terrible prank, take responsibility for your actions.
• sydbaby2012: Seniors: can we do a sit-in or something?! Protest? Anything.#LetTheBoysWalk2012
• pezetter: Theses kids aren't villains... #LetTheBoysWalk
• shesagabster: It's not just about receiving a diploma, it's about walking with the people you've been with for the past 4 years. #LetTheBoysWalk2012
• danyavocado21: I'm class of 2011 but i respect this prank. herndon administrators need to chill #LetTheBoysWalk2012
• high_slim11: A mothers dream is always to see their kid walk across stage and get that diploma but Herndon is doing to much.#Lettheboyswalk2012
Until last year parents were allowed to have a transcript of what was said. The hearings could be hideous as up to 17 FCPS employees berated the child and the parents for some pretty trivial offenses. (And, no, I don't consider the baby oil trivial.)
Again, they are very lucky IF no one got hurt. IF someone did get hurt, then they will probably have heavier consequences to pay. I have noticed that they have stopped using the "no one got hurt" excuse in their tweets, which may or may not be an indication of some new development. I wish these kids would just take the lesson from this that there are consequences of their actions. If they have not learned that by now, they may never learn it.
And for those of you wondering why we think he stirred up the crowd to get his 15 minutes of fame, I give you "People's Evidence #2". https://twitter.com/68AndI0U1/status/210443614071951360 And then, of course, there is "People's Evidence #3", which shows that he wanted school disrupted to continue his 15 minutes of fame. https://twitter.com/68AndI0U1/status/210444205426868224 I'm sorry, but that shows what he knew could happen and that he is the one riling up twitter and his school mates to try to get him out of a jam that he created for himself.
"Paris Morton @68AndI0U1 I would probably be in jail if our prank was as successful as we wanted it to be." and with that, I COMPLETELY change my mind about not having them spend a cpl weekends in the pokey......... thanks for the research, John S. Yeah, that right there makes it a completely different story cause a prank is a prank, sure. But if you are intentionally trying to hurt someone.......................well that's Columbinish. No joke at all. @Page, this isnt about objectivity. Children could have gotten SERIOUSLY hurt maybe someone killed. I was too stupid to put two and two together before, but I get it now. Plan was to oil the stairs then pull the alarm to have a bunch off ppl fall down the stairs. Thats the reason why the thugs are so animate about not having the fire alarm be part of the plan. And the thought that ANYONE regardless of age could even think to do something like that pisses me off beyond comprehension. ......and for a ****ing JOKE!?!!?!?
The dysfuntionality of the FCPS discipline system is not about the teachers. They actually supported the changes proposed by School Board members Schultz and McLaughlin last Thursday. All of the resistance to an educational, restorative and therapeutic discipline process is centered among a fraction of the FCPS high school principals, the Director of the FCPS hearing office, Ms. Scanlan, and Superintendent Jack Dale. There are better models around for handling these issues: Montgomery County Maryland and Boston, Ma to name just 2. The near mutiny of some high school principals at last Thursday's School Board meeting shut down that dialog.
Parents need to step up to the plate and teach humanity and the schools the ever expanding three R's.
But, again, values are taught at home. I feel like the parents going on TV instead of constantly being on the phone with the principal, the school board, or whoever else they needed to talk to (and I'm not talking about a lawyer), would have been a far better use of their time. I know that my child sure as hell would not have been allowed to tweet with his friends for the past week like these kids have been allowed to do. While I would have supported them being allowed to walk, there would have been serious repercussions at home. I do think that the school should have punished them. Should they have prohibited them from walking at graduation? That partially depends on how they handled the aftermath. Were they truly sorry? Were they more upset that they got caught? How they handled the situation in the aftermath may have helped to decide their punishment. Unfortunately, none of us were in that room. We will never know what really happened. But, again, today isn't a day to bash the school board. Today is a day to congratulate the ones who did walk, and even the 3 who didn't. Because even though they didn't walk, they did graduate.
Teachers cannot teach parenting. ESPECIALLY when the actual parents are FAILING IN THEIR JOBS THEMSELVES!!! Because last nite I saw that the kid was learning values from his dad. And the "values" where pathetic!
My Kid would be in the witness to mobile device destroyed in the garbage disposal and a very long hard summer working at a homeless shelter till Fall.
https://twitter.com/bigdarkass/status/213627199675301889