SACRAMENTO (AP) — More than two dozen students at a Sacramento high school have been barred from walking at graduation after they spray painted profane graffiti and smeared peanut butter throughout the campus, school officials said.
The vandalism at C.K. McClatchy High School this week was billed as a senior prank. But Principal Peter Lambert said it went too far.
A student with a peanut allergy suffered a bad reaction. Other students with peanut allergies were not able to attend school.
The vandals also spread toilet paper and threw eggs, causing more than $5,000 in damage, according to the Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/NOB0Vk).
Lambert said the school is investigating between 25 and 32 people in the nearly 500-person senior class in connection with the vandalism, and he plans to seek restitution for the damage. A total of 30 students have been barred from taking part in graduation ceremonies.
Sacramento police spokesman Andrew Pettit said a criminal case could also be launched.
"If you're destroying property at the school and the dollar amount is so high that it takes several people to fix it, and the school is having to pay a lot of money, then it may go criminal," Pettit said.
Meanwhile, officials at a San Francisco Bay area high school said Thursday that they had suspended more students in connection with what was also supposed to be a senior prank.
Students at Brentwood's Heritage High School tied a lamb to a pole, moved a 500-pound concrete bench and ran around campus with their feet covered in paint. On Monday, windows and doors were also tagged with spray paint.
The school has suspended 51 people in connection with the incidents, the Contra Costa Times reported (http://bit.ly/LwNcKs).
Some parents and students say pranks are a high school rite of passage.
Izzy Gardon, a graduating McClatchy High senior and a student member of the district's board of trustees, told the Bee he had mixed feelings about the school's punishment. He did not participate in the incidents, the Bee reported.
"This was, for a lot of people, the last time of being a kid and doing something childish," he said.
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