A North Carolina principal is under fire after handing over the keys to the school to allow students to pull off a “senior prank” that caused mass chaos and left teachers “in tears.”
Burns High Principal Jennifer Aberly thought some students would put up streamers and balloons last Thursday – 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 indoors without supervision.
“When I first saw that I was very upset,” board member Danny Blanton told the Charlotte Observer. “That shouldn’t have happened, especially a director who gives kids permission and then doesn’t oversee it.”
The incident is the latest in a series of so-called “senior pranks” across the country, in which major destruction is caused without regard to school property.
Students gained entry to a North Carolina high school for a “senior prank” that saw major destruction over a period of several hours
One photo shows a plant placed directly into a toilet bowl in one of the school’s bathrooms
Burns High Principal Jennifer Aberly thought a few students would put up streamers and balloons on Thursday to get in and find significant damage throughout the school
Parents, teachers and board members of the Lawndale, North Carolina, school are now expressing outrage at Aberly’s actions.
Photos of the devastation at the school show the extent of the damage caused by the group of teens.
Students used “pops of petroleum jelly” to coat door handles and slathered baby oil on hallway floors to smooth the surfaces as they walked, Blanton said.
One photo shows a potted plant placed directly in a toilet bowl in one of the school’s bathrooms.
The board member also said that a microwave had fallen into the water.
Another photo is of chairs and desks taken from classrooms and stacked in the hallways.
In perhaps the most concerning image shared by the board member, ceiling tiles appear to have been pulled down while items are littered in one room.
Board member Ronnie Grigg said teachers also entered 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 by Grigg and Blanton with the Charlotte Observer and reportedly show a horde of students roaming the halls.
“Security has been breached,” Grigg said. “Children were in offices where they should never have been. I fought hard for safety, and then this happens.’
Photos show the destruction in classrooms at Burns High School in Lawndale, NC
“Security has been breached,” said school board member Ronnie Grigg. “Children were in offices where they should never have been. I fought hard for safety, and then this happens’
Burns High School in Cleveland County where the senior prank took place last week
“That shouldn’t have happened, especially if a director gives children permission and then isn’t there to supervise it,” says board member Danny Blanton.
Overall, board members said students were in the school for several hours.
Blanton said he was only told that Aberly gave the students the keys in an email sent 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 do when the administrators and teachers went to work,” Blanton said of the damage to the school.
“And teachers were crying,” Grigg added.
DailyMail.com reached out to Aberly to comment on the destruction by the students. The director did not respond to questions.
The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office is not investigating this incident because it has not been reported, Captain Jody Seagle told The Observer.
In mid-May, DailyMail.com reported on a senior prank in which a disabled student became so traumatized that he didn’t want to go back to school.
Louisiana’s Kimberly Mitchell shared her outrage on social media after students who were let into a school as a prank mocked her son who has cerebral palsy.
Videos of the incident showed students at Abbeville High School riding around in her son Tay’Shawn Landry’s wheelchair.
In videos of another “senior prank” in Louisiana, Abbeville High School students were seen riding around in her son Tay’Shawn Landry’s wheelchair
Tay’Shawn Landry (pictured) who has cerebral palsy and needs a motorized wheelchair
A video shot at Abbeville High School was captioned, “POV. You got the master key to the school’ and shows two students riding the motorized wheelchair in a corridor
The video shows a student sitting in the chair and apparently speaking indistinctly and making squeaking noises, while another person laughs.
‘Sr. Jokes are fun and all, but if you make fun of my disabled child and his belongings IT’S BECOME MY PROBLEM,” Mitchell wrote on Facebook.
The students were reportedly allowed into the school to pull the prank, but were given access to a locked room that housed Landry’s wheelchair.
Other clips show a group of teenagers wreaking havoc by lining a hallway with toilet paper and stacking desks and chairs.