Wayland students arriving for their first period class Tuesday morning were met with an unfamiliar sight: an empty senior parking lot. A number of Wayland seniors woke up around 6 AM and drove to school, but not to get a jump start on a day of learning. For their prank this year, seniors parked their cars in the juniors’ spaces, then camped out in beach chairs blocking the entrance to their own lot.

“We were throwing around a beach ball, and grilling stuff. It was a good time,” said senior Matt Whittaker. As teachers and other students arrived, seniors could be seen lining the grass and entrances to senior lot. “We used Brendon Place and Grant Nishioka’s trucks to block the [two] entrances to the lot,” Whittaker added.

“Someone suggested passing it by them [the administration],” said senior Rachelle Poirier, “but senior prank–you don’t talk about it. There was a Facebook message sent out about it.”

Previous senior pranks included cars parked on the school quad, vaseline on door handles, and seniors spray painting their class year on top of the field house. “[camping out in the parking lot this year] was the best suggestion; other plans involved lots of money, sand and water. Possibly snow as well…,” said Poirier smiling.

Traffic started to back up a bit as parents were coming to drop off underclassmen and juniors began to arrive. “Parents were getting upset. One parent rolled down their window and asked me to deal with the situation before it got dangerous,” said Scott Parseghian, the dean of students. Seniors walked down to the junior lot to move their cars, with a majority of them out by 7:30. Whittaker admits, “Coach [Parseghian] came out a few times to tell us to get out of there.”

“Well I was running late to school anyways,” said Kelsey Sommers, class of 2010. “I actually got caught behind a police car that was blocking my way. I ended up going to my spot, but there was a car parked across my space, so I had to go to the other side of the lot. I eventually found a place to park.” When asked if she was late for her first period class, Sommers told us “yeah, by about 4 minutes.”

During homeroom, an announcement was made to seniors that as a result of the prank, their parking and other senior privileges would be revoked on Thursday and Friday. “We didn’t put anyone in danger,” added an exasperated Poirier. “I’m so mad that they’re taking away our parking privileges. It’s so stupid. No one was hurt, and we didn’t destroy any property, unlike a few years ago.”

Coach Parseghian did not see the situation in the same way. “I was fine with the prank until about 7:10-7:15. It was a great prank, good job, but when I went out there and asked them to leave, no one moved. I came back 5 minutes later and still no one had moved, so I called the police.”

According to Coach Parseghian, a number of students did receive tickets. “It was dangerous,” he added. “I saw one senior nearly hit a girl while he was driving back from the junior lot. It became dangerous when they all decided to move their cars at the same time. Traffic got blocked up, parents couldn’t get out, and juniors couldn’t get in.”