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A school prank is a prank pulled at school by a student or group of students, usually on another student or, less commonly, a teacher, which can result in punishment. If a prank produces sufficient emotional or physical injury, the act may be legally treated as assault. Such assault may include sexual harassment or a violent crime.
In primary education, pranks are commonly perpetrated by bullies seeking to dominate less powerful children. During higher education, or military training, hazing, an extreme form of prank or harassment, is practiced by some student groups such as fraternities and sororities to enforce group cohesion.
On the publication of his The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne in 1788, Gilbert White wrote: "I feel like a schoolboy who has done a prank and is waiting to see if he will be found out." He needn't have worried; his book has now been published in more editions than any other book in the English language apart from the Bible, Shakespeare and The Pilgrim's Progress.
List of impromptu pranks
Many, if not all pranks involving the causing of pain are regarded as bullying or even assault and can result in school punishment or legal punishment.
Happy slapping
Happy slapping is a prank whereby a person, or group of persons slap an unsuspecting victim while an accomplice films the assault using any form of video recording device, most commonly as camera phone or a smart phone. It is thought to have first become popular in South London,
Nipple cripple
Also known as a "nipple twist", "titty twister", or a "(purple) nurple", it is the act of taking a person's nipple between the thumb and forefinger and then twisting it around roughly. On August 8, 2005, David Thumler, a Gold Hill, Oregon 15-year-old, was charged with a misdemeanor for doing this act to 13-year-old Matthew Cox. Thumler was fined States dollar|US$" target="_blank" >*67 and given three days of community service. *Banana Skin
A banana skin is placed on the floor in a high-traffic area. Banana skins are notoriously slippery, and when the victim steps on the skin they are likely to skid and fall. This is a very typical gag, often used in cartoons. When they are used in cartoons nowadays, however, the character usually makes a comment about how notoriously old this prank is.Debagging/depantsing/cacking/short-shocking/shanking/scanting
The victim's pants are pulled down, sometimes inadvertantly pulling down underwear as well, revealing genitals. This particular prank is mostly done with boys but can be done by girls, because of the loose pants they wear (jeans, trousers, shorts exc.) The term debagging comes from the colloquialism bags, a British public-school term for trousers (pants). Cacking comes from the Royal Hospital School, where the Jack Wills crew are persecuted by cacking. In Australia and New Zealand the term is called Dacking, as the slang term for underwear is "Dacks" in these two countries. In the US, this prank has also came to be known as "short-shocking" or "shanking". In Scotland, UK this prank is known as "Scanting" and someone who is the victim of this prank has been "scanted"Kick me
Chalked tagging of the rear of school blazers with phrases such as "Kick me", sometimes by chalking in mirror writing on the victim's chair. Now more often done with post-it notes or other stickers.Warm water prank
Like the "blanket party", this prank can only occur where students (or campers) sleep. The fingers, or entire hand, of the sleeper are immersed in a cup or bucket of warm water. This is intended to make the victim urinate in his or her sleep. It may not always work, however, and when it doesn't, the frustrated pranksters may simply just pour the water on the victim. This long-standing prank is described in Spike Milligan's military memoirs and other sources.Wedgie
A wedgie is any one of a variety of pranks involving pulling the victim's underwear up so that it wedges between the buttocks. On April 6th, 2006, Fox News reported on a Albany, New York teacher who was arrested on a endangering the welfare of a child charge for giving a 10 year old student a wedgie. *
Mooning
"Mooning" is displaying one's bared buttocks to someone, so-called because the buttocks are generally not suntanned, so purportedly resemble a full moon. It is commonly performed out of windows of moving buses.
Shoe laces
Tying a victim's shoe laces together, or sometimes to a convenient object such as a chair leg, is a common prank. Less common is cutting them while the victim is seated and distracted.Short sheeting
A prank done at camps or on excursions where children sleep in full beds (also common in the military). It is achieved by untucking the foot end of the bottom bedsheet and wrapping it around to the bed opening, making it look as if it is two sheets (the base plus the covering sheet). The victim will find that he cannot get into bed (as doing this "shortens" the bed length). Known as an 'Apple-pie bed' in the UK.Organized pranks
Many schools and colleges have a rag week (or rag day, called by local names in some areas), during which pranks (ragging) are commonplace. This may include the staging of organized hoaxes and other pranks, generally for the benefit of charity. Recorded examples include letting animals into school, turning small cars onto their roof or lifting them into places from which they cannot be driven out, painting of slogans across multiple windows of the school, water fights and the like.
It is also common for those leaving a school to go out in a "blaze of glory", with various kinds of mischief conducted on their last day which may encompass damage to school property. This is especially true in high school with seniors, as the graduating class almost always participates in "senior pranks". This is known in Australia as muck-up day (probably bowdlerised). Though the "Muck-up Day" has slowly become less popular in Australia, mostly New South Wales, after some students from schools have taken pranks too far and resulted in arrests and large fines (Painting a rival school's gates Pink etc).
"School prank"