Senior year is a time for traditions and reminiscing. These traditions prove to be a unique experience for each student, and tend to be something many seniors look forward to. A more recent tradition that stands out is the game, ‘Senior-Spashin’.
Senior-Splashin’ is a student run, end of the year elimination game that involves water guns, floaties and goggles. This game consists of gaining eliminations, bounties and targets with an ending cash prize of $1,000 to the first place winner. Each person participating is assigned a target for the round and has to eliminate them from the game within the round, or they are eliminated. The only protection for participants is wearing a floatie or goggles on their heads acting as ‘armor’ to avoid elimination.
“I was really just looking forward to having a positive end to my senior year, my friends and I were talking about it a lot and it just seemed like a fun thing to do with friends,” senior game admin Nico Garcia said.
Kennedy High School Principal, Jason Kline, shut the game down due to the risk of injury and school liability. Kline has made it clear that it is not a school sanctioned event.
“I also want students and parents to be aware that engaging in this game could result in consequences including removal from Prom and/or Commencement ceremonies, suspension and even expulsion,” Kline said in an email sent to all seniors and senior parents. “As well, any activity that materially disrupts the operation of the school is subject to discipline. I provided fair warning about senior pranks and inappropriate behaviors in the Senior Letter sent back in January.”
Kennedy seniors have taken into account the risks of hosting the game, creating specific rules surrounding concerns. One of these rules is no elimination at school, or school events. Even with the rules, the game was shut down.
“The rules made it so school was completely off limits, including parking lots and sports events. This rule and the activity had nothing to do with the school. We weren’t wearing goggles or carrying around water guns on school grounds,” senior Cara Crock said. “The rules put into place would keep the game running because they made it safe and a non-school related thing. Since you couldn’t do anything when it came to school and sports, it made it so the school had zero liability if something were to go wrong. This is why I don’t understand why the school had any say in [canceling the game] and making threats to the admin. It had nothing to do with school and there had been no problems at all.”
With Kline threatening students’ involvement in important events, like prom and graduation, the senior class is left with many students disappointed, feeling left out of the senior tradition.
“The game was constantly being monitored by people making sure the rules were followed. Anyone can tell you I made many changes to the rules to ensure that everyone could participate in prom and graduation without problem, that was the priority for me,” Garcia said. “I looked forward to prom and graduation. Those are pretty much the top two [traditions] for any senior, and when they are used against me, it doesn’t make sense to keep the game going.”
Other high schools within the Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD), the Marion School District and the College Community School District, still participate in the games.
“When I spoke to the kids from other schools, like Linn Mar, they thought it was weird that the school shut down the game when we hadn’t had any problems,” Crock said. “At Linn Mar, they were getting people out in parking lots and yet their game wasn’t being threatened with [attendance to] prom or graduation.”
Senior year is a time for making memories with friends. The cancellation of the Senior-Splashin’ game left the class of 2026 with one less opportunity to do so.
“I think everyone looked forward to Senior-Splashin’. I mean we have over 100 kids playing so it’s really annoying to have that get canceled. Seniors only get so much and it’s completely unnecessary for the school to make us end Senior-Splashin’ when no one has done anything wrong,” Crock said. “When the school is being overly strict on stuff when you’re a senior it sucks, because all you want to do is enjoy your last few months. I hope that in the future, the school can allow seniors to enjoy fun events.”
