Seniors graduating Wilcox Regional Technical High School in Meriden Tuesday night were outraged after finding parts of the school vandalized with eggs and the chairs set up for the ceremony knocked over the morning of the event.
In an email to the school community, Principal Joyce Mowrey wrote “a very small group of students thought they would disrupt our year's final celebration.”
Members of the senior class told NBC Connecticut that students from the junior class were responsible for the vandalism.
What Lauren Goss saw when she arrived at the school Tuesday morning was not what she was expecting on graduation day.
“Everything was egged,” she said. “There were like 150 chairs back there that were knocked over, some of them broken and the stage was all egged and stuff.”
According to the principal, the pranksters also shot a paint ball gun in the area set up for the ceremony behind the school.
When Goss’ mother learned about the mess, she said she worried the graduation would be moved indoors.
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“I’m thinking complete panic because there are only two tickets if it was to be inside,” Kathleen Smiley said.
Members of the senior class helped put the chairs back in order.
“It made me feel proud to know that the kids were all working together in unity to clean up for something that they all worked hard to get to,” Smiley said.
The school, which is run by the Connecticut Department of Education, called in a professional cleaning company.
“I’m like pretty distraught about it because I’m actually allergic to eggs,” senior Corinne Laliberte said.
She was the first senior to discover the knocked over chairs and splattered eggs.
“It would be one thing if they did it yesterday,” Laliberte said, “but they did it today and that’s really inconsiderate of them.”
Not only is she upset by the timing, Laliberte said the senior prank was nowhere near as messy.
“We toilet papered the school and then we had to clean it up because the superintendent came,” she said.
While graduation day didn’t start as planned, Goss and her mom are looking forward to the ceremony that is going on as planned.
“She’s put in a lot of years,” Smiley said. “Worked really hard to get herself to graduate so it’s a big day.”
The principal in the email said the students responsible for the vandalism will face consequences from State Police and the Department of Education.
