San Diego police cite 13 high school students in senior-prank

In an apparent senior-prank gone awry, 13 students at San Ysidro High School were caught by San Diego police early Tuesday morning in the process of moving hundreds of desks and chairs.

One student apparently had a master key to the school's classrooms and offices. The students were moving the furniture after midnight to a playing field to spell out  '09. But a silent burglar alarm alerted police.

The students were cited for trespassing and curfew violation. Officials said that the students will be required to pay  the cost of installing a new key system and for the overtime paid to janitors to move the furniture.

--Tony Perry

Comments

[substudio]

why don't they just move the furniture back themselves and make them do some community service...

its just a prank with no real harm done.

[Reality Master]

Move all the waterboards from Gitmo to San Ysidro. Time we teach these young'uns some American values.

[huh?]

That would've been the common sense thing to do, have them move all the chairs back... then cite them if need be. Meanwhile, everyone could get a good laugh out of it.

[B Clemens]

So they have to pay for an essentially harmless prank.
But when dozens of police are called to chase some idiot across the city for two hours in a car pursuit, taxpayers foot the bill.
Makes a lot of sense.

[Ralph Mittman]

Good Grief!!! No the kids should NOT have had a master key, But for the school to have Janitors on OVERTIME move the desks back shows a completely inept level of management at the school. This is why the school management cannot be trusted. This incident shows that they are not capable of any responsible actions of any sort. This type of decision would be a firing offense at any REAL job. Look, have the kids move the desks back themselves, during school hours. A little bit of ridicule is certainly something that they can handle. No big deal! Schools are completely inept anymore. Why courts allow children to be left in their care is amazing.

[Michael Wells]

There are two obvious (at least to me) reasons that the school cannot have the kids move the chairs back. First, what are the other kids going to do while waiting for the desks to be moved back? There's bound to be a lot of lost instructional time.

The more important issue, however, is liability. If the school makes the students move the desks, and they get injured doing so, they can sue the school - even if they moved the desks in the first place. That's the law, agree with it or not. No competent administrator would allow the students to move those chairs back.

[karina]

My brother was there doing the senior prank and I went to pick him up after the cops got there and the janitor was not moving the desks back it was the students who did i, they did not even called the janitor. I don't know why they are making such a big deal over this, they did not steel anything or damage the school in any way.

[Larry H]

At least it wasn't a "Gulf" sign on the side of the gym. Huh, Ralph?