What happened at Ryle High School? Students under investigation after ‘dangerous’ senior prank injures staff 

On Thursday, May 25, students at Ryle High School allegedly injured a member of staff during a senior prank. According to WLWT, 75 students are under investigation for reportedly creating a dangerous environment in the school. The students were accused of putting track hurdles in the hallways, and vaselines on the doors.

Trigger warning: This article concerns a botched prank that injured someone, the reader's discretion is advised

Boone County Schools District officials said that members of staff were forced to clean up the mess left behind by Ryle High school students after the prank. Officials said that due to the dangerous environment the so called 'pranksters' created, certain members of staff were injured during the clean up. Boone County authorities have not yet announced any arrests.

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The timeline of the Ryle High School prank

According to Fox, on the day of the prank, Ryle High School students unlawfully entered the building before school hours. Josh Starns, who was part of the cleaning effort, said that the students had caused havoc within the building. He accused the senior school pranksters of unraveling toilet paper in the hallways and hanging desks from the ceiling by bungee cords.

Starns said:

“I got to school and I was actually helping some of my teachers pull some of the desks off the roof because they were hung upside down from their ceilings. A bunch of bungee cords hanging them upside down.”

Audrey Martin, a 2018 Ryle School graduate, acknowledged that while the senior prank was a longstanding tradition, she believed that the senior students this year caused too much damage.

Martin said:

"They took it a little too far. So it kind of was a prank gone bad. You know, everyone — at once — you're going to do something dumb here and there as a kid. Overall, I think the prank would have been fine, you know, if they would have not took it to a certain extent."

A mother, who did not disclose her identity to reporters, described one of the most dangerous elements of the prank. She said that the senior students had put vaseline or petroleum jelly on the stairwells, creating a situation that could lead to serious injury or even death. She added that not all students involved in the prank were seniors.

She said:

“According to what I heard from admin, was that everybody that entered the building was suspended and the seniors were not walking [at graduation]. Come to find out, some of the students that entered and partook in it were not seniors so their repercussion was just being suspended for the last two days of school.”

The case currently remains under police investigation. Authorities have not discussed the potential charges against the suspected Ryle High School students.