Fuquay grads will not march as penance for prank

FUQUAY-VARINA -- Sixteen seniors are being barred from a graduation ceremony after a messy romp through Fuquay-Varina High School.

The students call it a harmless senior prank. Wake County school officials call it vandalism and trespassing.

The students admit they hopped a school fence on Memorial Day and sprayed chocolate syrup and mustard on the walls of the courtyard and peanut butter on the doorknobs. Another sprinkled forks and toilet paper all over the ground.

School officials say the students also stuck feminine products on the walls, threw eggs and bologna on the walls, wrote profanity in chalk and drew phallic symbols on the walls of the courtyard.

Principal Edward McFarland, who declined to comment Wednesday, decided to bar the students from Sunday's graduation ceremony at the Raleigh Convention Center.

Michael Evans, a Wake schools' spokesman, said that McFarland could have filed criminal charges.

"Walking at graduation is a privilege and not a right,"Evans said. "Given the seriousness of what was done, the level of punishment was appropriate."

Michael Mackey, 18, one of the seniors who has been barred from graduation, said he didn't understand why it merited such a strong punishment. "It was just a little high school prank," he said.

Mackey said the one of the students involved "ratted us out." The students signed a letter of apology and delivered it to McFarland. They proposed holding fundraisers to cover the cost of the cleanup in exchange for letting them walk at graduation.

Those involved included student council members, including two who were supposed to speak at graduation, Mackey said.

McFarland appeared reluctant, said Elias Bender, 18. "His only argument to us was 'What about the class next year?' " he said.

Bender, who said he threw toilet paper all over the courtyard and drew "Class of 2011" in chalk on the ground, said the parents are most upset because they won't get to see their children graduate, and because relatives had plans to travel long distances to attend the ceremony.

He and the others "are showing they are remorseful," he said.

But Evans said they're standing by McFarland's decision.

"It was a lot more than just a prank," Evans said. "There was vandalism and criminal trespassing."