Update: it has been rumored that our very own Reggie, beloved mascot, may have had something to do with the prank. Admin claims that they have video footage of him opening the door for a group of students on the Thursday of spring break. Reggie is currently missing; if you find him, please call 1800-Scroll! Admin has announced a $500 reward for the student who finds our bear.
Reggie, if you’re reading this: HIDE!
Monday, April 1st –
As soon as students climbed up the stairs, on their way to class on the first day back from break, something immediately felt off: the iconic red-white-and-blue tiled flooring was missing.
Walking through the hallways, the reactions to the prank were audible. Nearly every passing group could be heard commenting. And although reactions were universal, opinions were quite varied. “Where did the floors go bro?! This looks like crap,” said one sophomore when he reached the top of the landing. Someone else stated that the floors negatively affected their mood. “It’s depressing; it looks like a prison or something.” But another student said they “actually look pretty good.” “I mean, it looks better than some of the other decor in the school. Have you seen the fabric on the booths in the cafeteria?” she said. And yet another student commented that they didn’t notice much of a change. “Why would I know what the floors look like? I’m always on my phone when I’m in the hallway.”
But one question was clearly on everyone’s mind: what happened? Had a pipe burst? Was it part of the construction? Had we all just collectively hallucinated the previous existence of the tiles?
According to our sources, over break, a group of senior students had broken into the building to remove the floors. “We were planning our senior prank during spirit week, and we wanted it to be really good. Our class has historically been lacking in school spirit, and the senior prank was a chance to fix that image. It had to be good,” said one senior who requested to remain anonymous due to fears surrounding disciplinary action for the prank. Various prank ideas were proposed, including putting lemonade in the cafeteria milk dispensers and painting the grass blue (the senior color.) But ultimately this idea won out. “We had heard about the construction, so we thought that would be a perfect decoy,” they said. When asked how they accessed the building over break, one senior stated that a “small kid in a blue fleece hoodie” opened the door for them. “We were trying to figure out how we would get in, and this little kid appeared just in time,” he said. “We couldn’t have pulled it off without him: Shout out to you, little dude!”
They had just enough time to tear everything up right before Monday morning – April Fools Day. “It was stressful; we ripped out the last tile at like 8:25,” another senior said. Then, they positioned themselves just out of sight, listening for the sounds of laughter among the shuffling feet.
The plan was executed perfectly, everyone was surprised, and the seniors had their long-awaited moment of glory. There was only one hitch: the district doesn’t have enough money to fix it.
In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, BVSD maintenance alerted the school community of the news, apologizing to the confused and frustrated students. “As we’re sure you’re all aware of, there has been an incident involving the upstairs flooring at Centaurus High School. We assure you that we have received notice and are working actively on solutions to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, due to various large construction projects currently in progress, our district lacks the funds to replace the original tiling at this moment in time.” The statement also explained that it will be extremely difficult to replace the flooring – whether with tiles or not – until the end of the school year. “With students in the building everyday, as well as activities occurring most weekends, it is extremely unlikely that maintenance will have a long enough window of time to properly replace the floors.” As a compromise between both funding and time, they’ve decided to replace the tiles one by one, adding a few per day until the end of the year. Areas with new tiles will be sectioned off in order to allow the tiling to properly adhere to the floor.
Students weren’t the only ones who were shocked. Monday morning, the admin scrambled to solve the case of the missing floors. In an exclusive interview, Mr. Di Laura expressed extreme disappointment in the senior class. “I’ve always had a soft spot for them, you know? They had to start during COVID, and they’ve had much of the classic high school experience stolen from them. But turning right around and stealing from the school will NOT bring them that experience.” “I do hope,” he added, “that this causes the students to be more appreciative of the things our school still has. The walls, for example. We shouldn’t take those for granted.” In light of the incident, new rules have been proposed in regards to senior pranks (alongside ‘no animals’; wonder what happened that time.) Admin also posted a reminder to the Class of 2025 Academic Planning Google Classroom page that all pranks must be pre-approved by administration.
The seniors involved in the prank are currently undergoing mandatory disciplinary action as a result of their hijinks. “They’re making us sit down and think intensely about our futures for 8 hours every day,” described one student involved in the prank. “It’s pretty tortuous, but honestly it’s not that different from what I’ve already been doing,” she said.
Several expressed remorse for the unintended consequences of the prank. “We thought they could pop the tiles right back on. It’s not as funny now that my last month of high school will involve shuffling to class on the most depressing floor ever,” one student said. Another stated “I wouldn’t have helped if I knew that the tile would be gone for good. That was my favorite part about the school; it was the perfect mix of spirited and headache inducing. Basically an accurate representation of the CHS experience.”
Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to make do with scuffing our way to class for the rest of the year. If you’d like to contribute to the GoFundMe set up to raise money for re-tiling the upstairs, click here.
