Several years ago, live chickens were set loose in the hallways at Toledo's Rogers High School.

Last year, the front lawn of Bowling Green High School was littered with old sofas.

And just last week, the principal of Toledo's Whitmer High School entered his office to find a toilet where his comfortable chair used to be.

Yes, a toilet.

The suspects behind these pranks: seniors.

Brad Faust, Whitmer High principal, said he was impressed by the "throne" that his seniors put behind his desk.

"As long as they are not destructive pranks, I have no problem," he said.

It's graduation season, and senior pranks go hand in hand with the end of the school year. But while some school leaders chuckle along with students at some of the pranks, they've also warned that students must be careful not to cross the line into vandalism or other criminal activity that could end their high school years on a bad note.

"In years past, we had some terrible ones," recalled Jeff Dever, principal of Bowling Green High School. "One year they put grease on all the lockers and grease in all the hallways. Those kids went before a judge and did not graduate with their class."

Among the common past pranks cited by several area school districts: placing hundreds of wind-up alarm clocks in lockers that are set to go off in unison.

Last year, a Sylvania Northview High School senior ordered eight portable toilets to be delivered to the front of the school building.

Seniors are suspected in a prank earlier this week at Sylvania Northview.

A huge tarp sign offering Sylvania Northview "For Sale By The Man" was attached to the side of the school's theater. The sign detailed the building's many amenities - 96 rooms, 14 baths, Olympic-sized pool, two full-size gyms, gourmet kitchen, and a 256-car parking lot - and the school's phone number for interested buyers.

"The kids wanted to do something creative that was nondamaging for a prank," said Sylvania Northview principal Kevin Gorman. "They also put up other signs that said 'auction today.' "

The signs were taken down the same day, and the blue tarp sign quickly disappeared from the outside trash container in which it was placed.

Nancy Crandell, a spokesman for the Sylvania schools, said this year's prank was "good clean fun" and said she wouldn't be surprised if the sign reappeared on the building.

But not all senior pranks are treated as harmless by authorities.

Five seniors at Dundee High School in Michigan would have been prohibited from walking with their classmates at graduation this Sunday were it not for a 4-3 vote Tuesday night by the district's school board to override administrators.

John Moskwa, a Dundee board member who was among those who voted with administrators, said the students let the air out of the tires of 17 district school buses, causing a two-hour delay to the start of the school day May 18.

"I voted against this because it starts a precedent, and students are able to participate in graduation where in the past the board of education has upheld administrative decisions," he said. "It opens the door to other 'senior pranks' to get worse."

A Perrysburg man was cited early Tuesday for public nuisance assemblage, a minor misdemeanor, for allowing some 50 girls who will be seniors next fall to use his home at 13791 Roachton Rd. as a base for planning and carrying out toilet-paper attacks at some homes in the Crandenbrook subdivision.

The incident is part of an annual tradition in Perrysburg schools that generally occurs early on the morning of "Senior Step-Up Day," when soon-to-be graduating seniors are no longer in school except for exam day and current juniors "step up" to senior status. The new senior girls traditionally toilet paper the homes of current eighth-graders who will become next year's freshmen.

Perrysburg High School Principal Michael Short said he has low tolerance for senior pranks.

Last year, several seniors didn't get to walk at commencement because they climbed onto the school's roof and used duct tape to spell out "Seniors 05" on a skylight window that overlooks the main commons area.

"I don't want to come off sounding like a Scrooge, but if that roof had been wet, they would have all slid right off and gotten hurt," he said. "What we have in our society is a one-upmanship. I look at the [Sylvania Northview tarp sign] and think next year, it could be someone with spray paint marking the building."

Jim Henline, principal of Genoa Area High School, said his Ottawa County school was hit with some paint-ball pellets this month, but he didn't make a big deal of the vandalism.

"You hope it is harmless and you hope it is good fun, and you don't want to be a stick in the mud. But you don't want things broken or destroyed," Mr. Henline said.

"If you make a big deal out of it, then it becomes more of a challenge for kids."

Contact Ignazio Messina at:

imessina@theblade.com

or 419-724-6171.

First Published June 1, 2006, 12:25 p.m.