The Ethics of Pranking

Today the prelude to one of our regular classes involved a brief discussion on the ethics of pranks. We agreed (with K________ being a possible exception) that the following guidelines are appropriate:

1. They should not damage property.

2. They should not cause injury or pain. (K_____ thought it's OK if something burns for a little while. Someone else thought K_________ would be a likely volunteer for a test run on the merits of that position.)

3. They should not interfere with necessary work, or create extra work.

4. They should not waste another's time unduly.

All correlations to today's date being "purely coincidental," we had some strange things happening at school today. Fortunately, they were, for the most part, in keeping with the above ethical standards. A few of them skated right along the edge of violations, however.

My first clue that something was afoot was the aluminum-foil-encased contents of Tim S.'s desk. Facial tissue box, water glass, Bible, textbooks, papers, etc.--all in shiny silver. He patiently dug each thing out of its wrapper as he needed it. In between times, he impatiently badgered the other guys for information on the perpetrator of the prank. I was thinking All that wasted foil! Ai yai yai!

Later, when I went to the restroom, I noticed that one of the stalls was occupied. I paid no mind and went to the other one. Later Elaine breathlessly asked me if I saw what was in the restroom. "No," I answered.

"I looked down and saw this pair of shoes I didn't recognize in the other stall. I got out of there fast," she continued.

Later, I went to inspect. It was men's shoes, situated in front of the toilet, facing forward, and partly covered by pant legs. Peering through the crack at the edge of the door, I saw a yard stick and another skinny board each thrust through a pant leg into a shoe on the floor. The upper part of the pants was draped over the toilet seat. On the floor was a folded-over, wadded-up piece of toilet paper, stuck together with peanut butter. Ugh.

Inside the boys' restroom, according to Mr. Schrock's report, a piece of tape on the bottom of the sink faucet opening directed the stream of water straight out toward unsuspecting people doing the right thing by washing their hands.

When I opened my computer and clicked on the word processing program icon, nothing. I rebooted it with no change in the results. "Would you check my computer when you have time?" I asked Mr. Schrock. He needed to be off to teach a class, but he paused long enough to check it out a bit.

"It's a prank," he told me quietly. "There's a picture on your screen that looks exactly like your desktop. If you need your computer, I suggest you question S____."

I worked on other things for a while in the learning center and then walked over to S_____'s desk. "Would you go to my computer and take the picture off the screen so that the icons work when I click on them? Thank you." S____ gave me a knowing and slightly sheepish grin and set off to do as I asked.

Everyone in typing class had the same initial experience with a picture on the desktop. The next problem was with the computer "mice" not sending any signals that registered on the screen. (Is that the proper term for more than one computer mouse?) Someone had taken out the navigating ball on the bottom of each one. Tim S. produced them from his pocket, and everyone popped them in, and all was well.

I heard more than the usual conversation among the boys during last break, but continued working diligently to get ready for the next class. After the bell rang, I beat everyone to the classroom. (I missed this clue to something abnormal.) The door gave a bit when I tried to open it, but would not open all the way. Oh great. Someone's in there holding the door. I'll just go in the back door. Same thing. I bet someone tied the two doorknobs together. But that doesn't make sense. Everyone's out here, not in there. By then, the class had clustered around the doors to the classroom.

Abruptly, one of the classroom doors opened from the inside, Jared having done the honors, and a rope trailing from the knob. Inside the room, a screen was missing from one of the windows, and the window stood wide open. Jared had hurried outside when he saw that the prank was discovered, and reversed what the boys had helped each other do earlier, entering through the window and untying the ropes to the doors. The air in the room was very fresh--not always the case, I assure you.

By chance, Mr. Schrock returned to school last night around 7:30 to pick up his own car after having gone to town directly after school with his wife Jean. He saw some cars there, which he did not recognize. (He's apparently as unobservant of vehicles as I am.) The lights were on inside, and he assumed there was a meeting of some kind going on.

After he and Jean got home, Jean mentioned having seen S_____ through the window, sitting at my computer. (This morning the blinds were closed--too late.) On a hunch, Mr. Schrock called the school. One of the students answered and Mr. Schrock asked if there was something going on there. "Yeah. We're just getting ready for the day tomorrow," he said.

Mr. Schrock was not born yesterday, and he had a pretty good idea that getting ready for the day did not involve textbooks or paces in this case. But he relaxed nonetheless, trusting the students' good judgment to regard ethical boundaries in their clandestine activities. For the most part, his confidence turned out to have been well-placed.

Fun and funny, slightly inconvenient and wasteful of a bit of time, but not painful or destructive (except to the aluminum foil supply)--it was April First, and another good day at Pilgrim.