Canutillo high school reacts after “Senior Assassin” prank left students fearful during school

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — A group of Canutillo High school seniors were placed on in-school suspension after a prank made fellow students afraid.

A group of seniors participated in a prank they called “senior assassin”.

The game is popular amongst teenagers and banned by some schools.

The game played between seniors involves players being assigned a target. The objective is to tag out their assigned target.

The seniors at Canutiilo high school played the game using water guns.

Some students who witnessed the game were afraid. This prank took place the day following the Nashville school shooting.

"We were able to confiscate these guns. We saw... we saw the incident happened, and the students faced appropriate disciplinary action," said Gustavo Reveles Canutillo I.S.D spokesperson. "So what we have here is a case of students participating in a student prank, a senior prank that was just in bad taste and really goes against the student conduct."

Reveles says the students and their parents were given a hearing to communicate the severity of the issue and then placed on in-school suspension in accordance with the code of conduct.

"You know, the possession of any gun, whether real or perceived, like a water gun. It's not allowed in school, on school grounds," said Reveles. "Not just because of the violation of the student conduct, but also the perception of what could have happened."

"We wanted to make sure that they understood the implications and the dangers of their participation, you know, not just to other students creating havoc and creating undue stress of students, that something might be happening, but also themselves, you know, putting themselves in danger, having our police department be trained to spot students or any intruder that may be carrying a weapon. And how dangerous the situations that can be," said Reveles.

Reveles said the students did show remorse and acknowledged the bad timing given the Nashville shooting. He adds the rest of the student body was notified of the incident, and anyone participating in similar activities would face the consequences.

But some students said they were unaware it happened.

"I don't think it led to any problems. But I think maybe it would be nice to say something about it to let the parents know what's happening," said Kalani Garnica, a sophomore.

Other students said they heard about it through social media.

"I heard it from a bunch of students around the school," said Josiah Cano, Canutillo junior. "But that's nothing dangerous to me. I mean, I know there's a lot of shootings, but I mean, it's just fun that they're having."

"It doesn't necessarily distress me personally, but I can see how other people would find it in poor taste," said Kalani Garnica, Canutillo Sophmore.

"I just think it's... it's not fine to do it at school. I mean, you can do it somewhere else, but if it's just water," said Cano.