High school is a learning experience. Generally, educators are doing their best to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, you know, stuff like that. But really, a high school is a single building housing hundreds to thousands of wild, hormonal, rule-defying teenagers who would probably rather not be there in the first place.

Any administrator could tell you it’s a solid formula for wild shenanigans. So for you high school educators out there hoping to survive this year, take note of the most common and most outrageous senior/Homecoming pranks.

5 COMMON PRANKS

1  Toilet Trained
This Homecoming tradition is pretty obvious. Carloads of excited teens buy trunkloads of crap paper, throw it into the trees and onto the roofs of their friends and teachers, and quickly run away. (This has also progressed to the point of using shaving cream and plastic forks in lawns.)

2  Mascot War
Stealing a rival school’s mascot goes back further than Saved by the Bell, though it may be tough around these parts with a fictitious bird (Blugold), bald eagle (Old Abe), fighting Irishman (Rambler), railroad car (Railroader), and Jiminy Cricket (Cricket).

3  Sticky Situation
With so many rebellious students wanting to do everything in their power to avoid going to class, many around the nation have resorted to the extreme means of gluing the locks on doors. If they’re lucky, the perps will have delayed the day’s proceedings and only face expulsion and a hefty fine.

4  Leaving a Mark
After forcing them to go to all those pep rallies, you’ve finally pounded a bit of school spirit into those kids. Unfortunately some have channeled that pep by leaving a message like “2010 rocks” in the school lawn or football field (gasoline has the immediate death effect, while manure has a surprise that “grows” on you).

5  A Keg Up on the Competition
Since the cultural rise in youth alcohol consumption and schools taking the role of busting rumored parties and penalizing athletes, some kids have gotten clever. What they do is announce a “keg party” where everyone is invited, and when police or school officials bust it, they find a keg of root beer.

5 CRAZY PRANKS

1  The Deep End
It is rumored that a 1970s high school shop class in southeastern Wisconsin took apart the class car after school hours, and put it back together in the school pool.

2  Yard Stick
Instead of toilet papering a teacher’s house, some kids have made a citywide scavenger hunt for themselves, the fruits of which end up in an educator’s lawn. These have included reflectors, gnomes, flamingoes, and political signs.

3  Four’s a Crowd
In the Midwest it’s not uncommon that a school in a rural region will have a farm kid with non-domestic animals like goats, pigs, or chickens. Rumor is that some seniors have taken three such animals, and numbered them one, two, and four. The thinking is that teachers will run around all day looking for number three.

4  Skip Day
Senior Skip Day might be the only thing more clichéd than toilet papering, but some students from two high schools allegedly organized a swap day, where they changed high schools for the day.

5  Always Room
Kids are always screwing around with the pool, whether it’s colored dye or Kool-Aid. But some high school kids from god-knows-where thought it funny to pour a crapload of gelatin in the pool and turn the heat way up. Not sure if that works …