School prank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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[edit] Examples 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 (in more serious cases) legal punishment.
[edit] Nipple cripple
Also known as a "nipple twist", "nipple gripple", "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 US$67 and given three days of community service. [1]
[edit] Banana Peel
A banana peel (skin) is placed on the floor in a high-traffic area. Banana peels 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.
[edit] Warm water prank
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 wet the bed. 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.
[edit] 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 6, 2006, Fox News reported on an Albany, New York teacher who was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child charge for giving a 10 year old student a wedgie. [2]
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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. There is a common variation of this, in which the victim's shoelaces are tied to a heavy object, and then they are caused to run, making them trip.
[edit] 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, 'Cama espanhola' ('Spanish Bed') in Portugal and 'Lit en portefeuille' in France.
[edit] Indian burn
A prank done by grasping the victim's forearm firmly in both hands, and then twisting the hands in opposite directions about the victim's arm, causing the tender skin to stretch making it red and sore. Also called a Chinese burn, Indian sunburn, Indian rugburn, or snakebite.
[edit] Noogies
Sometimes called a Russian Haircut, this is done by putting the victim in a headlock and using the middle knuckles of the fore and middle fingers to cause friction by rubbing them across the surface of the skull quickly and firmly. This sometimes rips out bits of hair at the worst, but usually only causes minor skin irritation.
[edit] Pink Belly
A prank done by holding a victim down, exposing the belly and repeatedly slapping it by alternating both hands. This causes minor skin irritation and causes the slap site to turn pink, hence the name. The words "pink" and "belly" are sometimes spoken by the slapper with the alternating hands, as was done by Nelson the bully on an episode of The Simpsons. Like the swirlie, the pink belly requires more than one perpetrator.
[edit] 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.
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 when the graduating class participates in "senior pranks". This is known in Australia and the UK as muck-up day (probably bowdlerised). However, the "Muck-up Day" has slowly become less popular in Australia, mostly in New South Wales, after some students from schools have taken pranks too far, resulting in arrests and large fines.
[edit] References
- Steinberg, Neil (1992). If at all possible, involve a cow : the book of college pranks. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312078102.
