...and that's how you run a prank...

I would embed this video if I could, but CNN doesn't seem to allow it.

Last year a couple of students told me they were planning their senior prank - they were sophomores at the time - and were asking my advice. I gave them these bits of advice:

• Make sure nobody gets hurt.
• Make sure no property is irreperably damaged.
• Be willing to clean up whatever mess you make.

If you do that, you'll probably get away with a slap on the wrist, especially if it's funny.

This guy at Hillard Davidson (and oddly his girlfriend from Hilliard Darby) followed all those rules, came up with a really entertaining prank, and seems to be getting a bit more punishment than seems reasonable. The basics of the prank are that Kyle Garchar plotted out the words You Suck in black and white posters in the Darby stands. He and his girlfriend - seriously, she goes to Darby, I don't get it - set up the prank. They had everybody in the stands hold up their posters at the designated time, fully expecting to spell out "GO DARBY" but to no avail.

Their punishment?

Fully reasonable - three days in-school suspension. For good kids, this isn't all that horrible a punishment because they'll just spend the three days doing their work or reading. Simple enough.

But they also got banned from all school events for the rest of their senior year - all sports events and, I assume, prom. That seems kinda severe for what they pulled off. Ingenuity like that should be rewarded.

Here's the only YouTube video of the event that I can find. It's far less detailed than the above CNN link, but at least it'll embed: