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Friday, June 23, 2000
Osan High senior prank leaves odorous legacy
By Jim Lea
Osan bureau chief
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea - Shortly after Osan American High School
held its commencement exercise, a handful of youths believed to be members
of the Class of 2000 paid the school a clandestine visit and left a messy
and smelly legacy.
John S. Provinsal, Osan principal - who has seen many senior pranks in
28 years as an educator - said someone broke into the school between midnight
June 12 and 5 a.m. June 13. The cafeteria was vandalized, and fish were
placed in the building's ventilation system.
But, he added, the prank wasn't nearly as bad as the rumor mill has made
it out to be.
"They turned over the cafeteria tables, smeared the walls and windows
with ice cream sandwiches, sprayed shaving cream over a wall mural and left
several varieties of fish in the vents in the walls," he said. A few
fish also were found on top of removeable ceiling panels and in a few student
lockers, he said.
Rumors allege the incident caused "thousands of dollars" in
damage and that the school is taking money from travel and other activities
funds to pay for the damages.
That, Provinsal said, is "absolutely not true. All we had to do
was clean up the mess they left. Our regular cleaning folks cleaned the
walls and windows, straightened the furniture, cleaned the shaving cream
off the mural and took away the fish. Actually, most of the mess was cleaned
up by the time kids got to school that morning and the smell was nearly
gone," he said.
Provinsal also clarified that the entire graduating class in not under
suspicion.
"The names of some seniors - about eight - did surface. They're
being questioned by base authorities," he said.
Authorities want to know how the culprits managed to get into the school
and cafeteria, which are locked when the school closes for the day.
His assessment is the incident caused "more disappointment than
damage."
"Every piece of artwork in the school was done by students and the
fact that the mural in the cafeteria was defaced caused disappointment,"
he said. "Even many of the seniors who graduated have expressed disappointment."
Provinsal said he doesn't condone pranks, but "my biggest concern
is that some of our seniors did this after they were graduated.
"The whole school made a big effort to make graduation pleasant
for them," he said. "Our students were very frustrated by this.
The kids don't understand why these people who are no longer students and
are supposed to be adults would come in and do this."
This year's graduating class left the school with a good legacy, he said.
"But some of them have turned that into a legacy of disgrace,"
he added.
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