Senior picnic canceled after senior prank

By KAYLEIGH KARUTIS, The Leader-Herald

BROADALBIN - A senior prank at Broadalbin-Perth High School contributed to the cancellation of the senior picnic and resulted in suspensions and orders of community service.

Some 16 students were involved in the prank, Superintendent Stephen Tomlinson said. The students obtained a key to the building and went in during the weekend about two weeks ago, he said. They took furniture, including desks, from classrooms and placed it in the hallway, Tomlinson said.

There was no damage to any of the property, he said.

"It was more of an inconvenience than anything else," he said.

The students were brought before the school's Board of Education, Tomlinson said. They were suspended from school for three days and ordered to perform 30 hours of community service each, he said.

The school recovered the key, Tomlinson said. He said he did not know how they obtained it.

As part of the students' punishment, the annual senior picnic in Saratoga Springs was canceled, Tomlinson said. The primary reason for the picnic's cancellation, though, was low turnout.

"Of 160 students, we had 30 sign up," he said. "The majority of the decision [to cancel] was due to not enough interest."

Broadalbin-Perth senior Hannah Pecora said neither she nor her friends were bothered by the cancellation of the picnic.

"No one was really that mad about it," she said.

"It wasn't really that bad," she said. "A bunch of us got together anyway and had a barbecue of our own."

As for the prank, Pecora said she and other seniors thought it wasn't the best choice.

"We just thought it was stupid," she said. "At first we didn't really care, but it went too far."

Kayleigh Karutis covers rural Fulton County. She can be reached at ruralnews@leaderherald.com.