You wouldn't read about it

How many of you have been involved in practical jokes in high school?  I was involved in a few.  It's surprising how often a lot more is read into pranks than the actual intentions of the pranksters, however, and this is one example.

Gorokan High School was a new school when I started.  There was a year above me, but it was progressively filled, ie in 1976 there was a year 7 only.  In 1977 there was a year 8 and 7 only.  1978 saw a year 9, 8 & 7, etc, etc.  So we were in the SECOND year, and naturally there was a great deal of rivalry between us and the year above.  To tell you the truth, we thought they were a bunch of unimaginative conformists, and sticklers for the rules.  They had their year twelve farewell on the Wangi Queen, cruising Lake Macquarie like a bunch of yuppies.  We had OUR year twelve farewell at the Lakes Surf Club, just being ourselves.

They did virtually nothing when it came to break-up time at the end of year twelve, so we decided to show them how it was done.  A window lock had come loose in a second storey classroom and we knew about it.  In the wee small hours of night I remember watching a mate climb a she-oak tree and accessing the room via the window and letting us in.  We were armed with newspapers, which we had brought in in a small station waggon.  Over the course of the next three and a half hours, we screwed them up into balls, and filled three classrooms (they had removable dividers which we opened) to the height of approximately one and a half metres with scrunched up newspapers.

Of course we weren't stupid about it: one of the first things we did was to get out the fire extinguishers and check they were working just in case they were needed.  And we left the rooms locked up when we went.

Although it was not to be, I would have loved to have seen the face on the first person to open the room the next morning, as it would have been fascinating.  All the desks and chairs were completely submerged in a sea of newspaper, stretching out across three classrooms.  We reckoned it was lesson enough to the year above us on how to commit a prank.

All hell broke loose.  The three rooms we had chosen were the very rooms the HSC examinations were to be held in!  And the HSC was to start on the day after our prank went down!  The acting principal got up at assembly and said he regarded the act as a direct threat to the holding of the HSC at the school, and goodness help the perpetrators.

Unfortunately it was giving us greater credence than we deserved as we didn't know these were to be the rooms for the HSC, and had no real idea of the dates of the HSC exams.  Honestly!  So we kept quiet about it for a week or so.

Interestingly enough, the newspapers we had brought in in the back of a tiny station waggon took several trips in a table-top truck to remove :-)

After a while the acting principal said he realised we were not threatening the HSC (which was true) and we visited him in his office and owned up.  I think it's still talked about today. It surely will be again now!