Did your high school have "senior assassination"?

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AdamoMeFecit@reddit

We had goddamn slave auctions but nobody would have thought to normalize mock assassinations. 40 years ago. Shit’s gone weird in a different direction since, I guess.

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Gatsby1923@reddit

We didn't do this but I graduated 27 years ago.

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Sooner70@reddit

We talked about organizing a game of such, but I’m not aware that anyone ever did.

As a random aside, there was a movie in the 1980s called (IIRC) “Tag”. The basic premise being that some folks organize such a game but one of ‘em is unhinged and starts hitting folks for real.

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We would have it every 2 years at our school and juniors could take part. That was until it was the round where my year could join. First weekend it was going on someone in my class nearly got into an accident and twas forced to get out of the car at "gunpoint" by the assassin. School banned the game after that.

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PixelmonMasterYT@reddit

I graduated a few years ago and we did not have this game. Just a couple years later my brother graduated from the same school and they did it then. I think it just got more popular in a short time period and spread to a lot of schools.

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Adventurous-Exam-719@reddit

Graduated in 2004 in Arkansas. We didn’t do this. I agree with the others. After the school shootings, this would have been shut down pretty quickly. I live about thirty minutes from West Side

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Quicherbichen1@reddit

Never heard of this. But we did have senior prank day, back in the '70s. We organized to have all the toilets we could access flush at the same time. We were precise down to the second. Ended up flooding the school so they had to cancel classes for a couple of days. I don't think administration ever determined what really happened.

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AbiWil1996@reddit

I graduated in 2014 and I don’t remember it being a thing. But I also didn’t remember senior sunset being a thing either, but apparently it was and only a select group of kids knew about it. So it’s possible

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ereignishorizont666@reddit

Beats our slave auctions (85) I guess.

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2WaterGuns@reddit

Fucking WHAT?!

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ereignishorizont666@reddit

Yeah, exactly.

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mealteamsixty@reddit

My school finally ended those in 2002

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TheBimpo@reddit

We chased each other around with shaving cream and water balloons but we didn't call it "assassination". Mid 90s, midwest.

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squigglyquigley@reddit

Yes, but we had to hit our target with a balled-up sock instead of shooting them with a water or nerf gun

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EddyGurge@reddit

Yes, Had a lot of fun doing it too. Class of 1983 central Oklahoma

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PNW_Uncle_Iroh@reddit

Never heard of this. Graduated in 2000.

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Old_Ant7118@reddit

Never heard of this

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Financial_Island2353@reddit

This is apparently big in the South, I learned in college that a lot of my friends at their high schools in MS, AL, TN, GA, etc did this.

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psycheraven@reddit

Graduated 2008 in NC, this is the first I'm hearing of it.

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astudyinamber@reddit

2000 in AL and I've never heard of it. My kid is in high school right now and they don't do this

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Chessdaddy_@reddit

Happens here in Oregon lol

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Old_Ant7118@reddit

We just had senior skip day and senior pranks

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ScarletDarkstar@reddit

Never heard of this before today. I do remember teens playing FBI, but it wasn't school organized at all. We'd just pull a team who drove to be the FBI and the others would run off through the neighborhood to hide and see who got away the longest.

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highway22822@reddit

It is currently a thing at my kids’ high school in Scottsdale, Arizona. It wasn’t in mine in Utah in the 90s.

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jessper17@reddit

I graduated in the early 90s and thankfully no. I never heard of this trend until this year when posts in groups for the city I live in started mentioning it happening owning. It’s not a smart thing imo.

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InternationalRule138@reddit

It was popular a few years ago but I think it sorta phased out…

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PacSan300@reddit

Never heard of it. My school didn’t do this, and neither did other schools I had friends or family graduated from.

I graduated in 2009.

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slipperyDSS@reddit

Yep✅ needed to have Instagram to do it which is kinda stupid so I didn't do it

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ChickenNugs4Hugs@reddit

I graduated in 2018 and no. Only started hearing about this last year on TikTok.

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MerbleTheGnome@reddit

HS graduation was in 1979 - NO, but it was a very small Catholic school with around 80 grads.

Freshman class in an engineering school - there was an assassination game every other week.

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ChampionshipBetter91@reddit

My brother had something like this at his high school, but kids in every grade participated. This was a suburb in Pennsylvania.

I went to high school in an entirely different part of the country (my mother was transferred), and we didn't play this game. Probably because this area was incredibly rural and EVERYBODY hunted, year-round: every other car/truck had a gun rack. People didn't walk around with guns, but I surmise if you saw someone with one, you'd think he was going to use it.

This was all in the 1980s.

There was a movie with Anthony Edwards that came out in the early 80s called "Gotcha!", and a minor plot point is that a bunch of college kids play something like this all over campus, with very realistic-looking guns that only shoot colored darts. I caught the opening of that movie the other day, and it occurred to me that something like this could never take place now.

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brizia@reddit

Yes. i graduated from a high school in NJ in 2002. There was even a primitive website.

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devilscabinet@reddit

My friends and I played that in high school, but it wasn't a widespread thing. Just a dozen or so of us.

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

We did not do that, but some of my cousins who lived in other towns did! They had fun as I remember. I grew up in an area that was pretty rough, so I imagine that our school wasn't trying to add to the general chaos (ie, one student chasing another down the sidewalk and hiding behind cars would look pretty bad).

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Ok_Still_3571@reddit

They do it in the town where I work. Kids come in to buy large squirt blasters. I don’t have kids, so it was strange to see such a rush on these items. Then one of them said it was for “senior assassination”. In these days when all school kids have active shooter drills, it seemed a little weird to let this sort of practice happen.

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CallFlashy1583@reddit

I was a high school teacher in Kentucky, and many of the seniors played “dart wars.” They created teams, put money in a pot, and had to eliminate members of the other teams. The winning team split the money in the pot. They had rules like you couldn’t go to another players place of employment, and the school had to explicitly say they couldn’t play during school hours, but it got pretty intense. I would ask for updates at the beginning of class to see how things were going.

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GlumFaithlessness392@reddit

Graduated in the early 2010s in a safe suburb and yes we did this! Not necessarily for seniors but groups of friends would organize

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JustCallMeKV@reddit

This is a fairly new trend because of TikTok.

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Ok-Concert-6475@reddit

Graduated high school in 1996 in the Pacific Northwest. We didn't have anything like this.

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Onyx_Lat@reddit

No, but we had "senior slave day" which definitely wouldn't go over these days. Basically they would auction off all the seniors for real money, and the highest bidder would get to tell them to do a certain task that day (within reason: you weren't allowed to tell them to get naked or anything of that sort). The money was then used for the senior trip or something to that effect.

Luckily by the time I was a senior, they'd stopped doing that.

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LCteach@reddit

Yes! My son's class just started it on Friday!

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AllReihledUp@reddit

And you think that's a cool idea?

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LCteach@reddit

I absolutely do

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DeFiClark@reddit

Hell no.

My (1980s) high school had a teacher shot and killed in an attempted robbery of the school store the year before I started. We had metal detectors and armed security years before Columbine.

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molotovzav@reddit

Graduated in 2008, wasn't a thing that I at least heard of. My high school had like 3000 kids and so did the average high school in the city. My graduating class was like 800. So too many people to know what we were all doing.

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alwaysboopthesnoot@reddit

No. Not at my school or at my kids’ schools. In my day we were too busy trying to get a dog dressed as the mascot or the principal’s bike wrapped in duct tape up on the roof.

In my kids’ day they weren’t allowed to do anything gun-related at all—Including wearing clothing with video game or movie weapons on them, dressing as characters w/weapons as part of their costumes, or anything with a target/crosshairs on it or phrasing suggesting guns, shooting, etc.

Gun-shaped anything a d running around pretending to shoot anyone, even jokingly, was a big no-no.

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Folksma@reddit

Lol yeah it was all the "popular kids"

They organized it themselves and only they participated

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No-Intention8698@reddit

Yep, same with all of the other "senior events"'-- no one else was invited.

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Folksma@reddit

Good to know it wasn't just my school!

We had a "field day" (like the ones in elementary school) but only 30 students (picked by the teachers and suprise suprise were the "popular" students) were allowed to actually participate in the games.

The rest of us were help captive in 95 degree weather while we watched them form the bleachers and the resource officers blocked the parking lot exits so we couldn't run.

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kittenpantzen@reddit

Woof. Our field day was (a) voluntary, (b) come and go as long as you didn't come back drunk, (c) open participation. They also had 10/10 hot dogs. It was a fun day!

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Temporary_Pie2733@reddit

Sorry to hear that. Our field days had a full slate of events throughout the day, and every one was required to be in at least one. (Which is its own problem, based on your perspective, but it certainly wasn’t particularly exclusive.) Nobody was required to watch any event; if you weren’t competing you were essentially free to do your own thing.

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warp10barrier@reddit

Graduated 2004. Never heard of it.

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TomMorelloPie@reddit

Hadn’t ever heard of before a local kid landed in the ICU a couple weeks ago. Carotid artery dissection, neck fracture, skull fracture, brain bleed, ruptured ear drum and road rash.

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tesseractjane@reddit

I started HS in Denver right after Columbine.

Definitely no.

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Hillbillygeek1981@reddit

I was a freshman in Tennessee when Columbine happened. My little rural high-school went from every truck having a shotgun in a gun rack and possibly a pistol under the seat to three people suspended for empty shell casings in their vehicles practically over night. Changed everything.

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Zorro-the-witcher@reddit

Yeah same…. That would not be allowed. Still likely would not.

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Lopoetve@reddit

Was my freshman year, also Denver. No. we did not do this.

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UnoriginalInnovation@reddit

We called it "senior assassin" and there were lots of rules, including that one person per team could just essentially stay inside (which I did).

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yellowlinedpaper@reddit

We had Senior Slave day where they were auctioned off to the other students

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FunImprovement166@reddit

Yes we called it gotcha.

Most people on Reddit wore capes to class. Not the best place to ask about typical high school experiences

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Oenonaut@reddit

The game Assassin goes back decades. In the mid 80s I had a copy of rules that Steve Jackson Games published under the name *Killer*. My high school had a couple individual games popping up now and again but it wasn’t a tradition and not specific to seniors. I wasn’t aware of a game in my college years or after.

It’s generally frowned on by administration due to security dangers (see the section in the wikipedia article.)

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lets-snuggle@reddit

Yes. Graduated in nj in 2018. It was fun. It only got out of hand with people selling their friends info and some friendships were lost over that. The only negative thing I encountered was someone tricking me over their house for a project and then rumors that he and I were dating or hooking up started bc I was at his house but they died down quickly

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theegodmother1999@reddit

my school in the city didn't but my cousin's in the suburbs did. my friends from Seattle also played it their senior year too

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kcdashinfo@reddit

Yes, there was a day, even, usually a few weeks before graduation. I forgot what they called it. Even the teachers got in on it. School used to be fun or at least they tried to make it fun. Our school had all sorts of weird traditions.

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RedhotGuard21@reddit

We had nerf wars between the two high schools in my area. Businesses started getting pissed when it would end up inside the stores. So that put a stop to it.

A lot of the community complained also since you could just be walking around or at the park with your kids and bam.

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Shortstack1980@reddit

We didn't have anything like this when I was in school but our local high school does something similar called water wars.

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badash2004@reddit

All of the schools in my southern smallish city have been doing it for a few years. It was pretty fun. Basically everyone is immune at school during school hours, but otherwise if you are not wearing a floatie outside of your house you are fair game. If someone shoots you with a water gun, or just pours water on you, your out of the game. Everybody in our grade played and paid the buy in, and the last people remaining got the winnings, same with the person with the most eliminations. You also had to have your location on if your still in, so sometimes my group of friends would get together and go hunting for people.

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Legitimate-Pirate-63@reddit

My friends kid is graduating this year and they played. He did pretty well. I'm in RI

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Efficient_Advice_380@reddit

No, I had never even heard about it until it started becoming viral a year or two ago

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Bluemonogi@reddit

Not at my high school in Iowa in 1992.

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strugglingtransgrl@reddit

i thankfully graduated during covid so i wasnt apart of anything like that

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Angry_GorillaBS@reddit

I have never heard of such a thing.

We had senior skip day lol.

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JustSomeGuy_56@reddit

My school didn’t but one of the schools near me apparently does, and it’s happening right now. There have been FB posts warning us to look out for roaming “assassins” in the shopping centers, parks and restaurants,

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Jdadonn@reddit

No I’m class of 2017 but the 2019 class did and I was like what is that

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Helen_Cheddar@reddit

Yes, but for us it was whacking them with a spoon.

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NoCaterpillar2051@reddit

2015 never had it. It would have been a nightmare to organize, my town was not really walkable.

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redjessa@reddit

Never heard of it.

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Humdrum_Blues@reddit

Yes, but as with all Senior activities it was only really for kids who were popular.

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Dingbrain1@reddit

I just learned about this yesterday when I met a high schooler wearing goggles in public. I’m 34, graduated HS in 2010, never heard of it before.

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Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit

We played this game in my fraternity in college and I’ve heard about high schoolers doing it but it wasn’t a thing when I was in high school. Fun game but I can see it being very annoying for high school teachers

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am123_20@reddit

Graduated 2018, we had Assassin and I recently learned that they still play! When I was in HS it wasn't just for seniors, it was for anyone that wanted to play. We also didn't use water guns, we had to sneak up behind the target and draw our finger across their neck. It was always so chaotic and so much fun when we reached Assassin season in school!

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Alive_Surprise8262@reddit

Yes, it is still a thing in Central OH.

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RandyArgonianButler@reddit

No, but we did have a massive fucking water balloon fight (plus SuperSoakers) on campus. Everyone who had a pickup truck brought tubs and coolers loaded with water balloons. Myself included.

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Just-Brilliant-7815@reddit

Graduated 2005. Wasn’t done at my school

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Old_Ant7118@reddit

Same. We had senior pranks and senior skip day but no murder

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somecow@reddit

Only recently heard about this. No, we didn’t do shit like that. No pranks at all my senior year really. We just wanted to leave forever. Did toilet paper a tree or two, that was about it.

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Oldpuzzlehead@reddit

I graduated hs in 2000 we did not have it at my school.

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Sleepy-Blonde@reddit

Yes, it’s been going on for decades. We played with nerf guns. It use to be played at school until guns/school became an issue.

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MageDA6@reddit

I have never heard of such a thing. lol I started school the year of Columbine and water guns we’re banned from being in our schools.

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YoshiandAims@reddit

Nope. It wasn't a thing in my time. Early 2000s. We had other traditions.

It's banned now.as after a few years and a few minor injuries/chaos, there was a larger injury/incident. They still did smaller versions, sneaker stuff, but, Then the infamous parking lot shooting of course. I've never seen it since.

They've moved on and have a new thing now.

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Outrageous-Host-3545@reddit

Nope

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DoublePostedBroski@reddit

Um no? Wtf?

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Youcants1tw1thus@reddit

Xennial from the northeast: No.

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river-running@reddit

Nope. 2007. Never heard of it until now.

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shammy_dammy@reddit

Nope.

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Elevenyearstoomany@reddit

Columbine was my junior year of HS. Hard no on that one.

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delagar01@reddit

We (briefly) had a zombie apocalypse, with a couple people being zombies and then 'biting' other people, turning them into zombies, until there was only one survivor. But when school shootings got more common, I think this stopped being something the school wanted to do. It was fun while it lasted, though.

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Such_Baseball47@reddit

My daughter's school does. They even have an Instagram where you can see videos of people getting eliminated. She can't wait to be a senior next year.

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GreenDavidA@reddit

Graduated 2000, not a thing, but Columbine happened the year before, so probably something that would not have been well-received.

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PeorgieT75@reddit

Never heard of such a thing, but I graduated in the 70’s and we were too busy drinking and hooking up.

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jmims98@reddit

My high school in New England had this. We called it Assassins, and the school administration threatened to not let you walk at graduation if you participated on school grounds.

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Lootlizard@reddit

No, we had gay piles. 10 guys would come sprinting around a corner, tackle you, dog pile, then tell you how gay you were for wiggling around under a bunch of guys. 2010 was a different time lol.

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Financial_Island2353@reddit

Yes. A big group of people did it in senior year of college too. It got really out of hand in high school when the "master" declared all rules were off and people started running into classrooms while class was in session to kill others.

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Techaissance@reddit

We couldn’t have even if we wanted to because I graduated in 2020.

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Leucotheasveils@reddit

It wasn’t a thing in the early 90’s. Not by me anyway.

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Ravenclaw79@reddit

Never heard of it

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sneezhousing@reddit

Nope never heard of that

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manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit

no

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Current_Poster@reddit

My sister's kids did it. I was over visiting during it. A whole carload of kids were waiting for my nephew in their driveway, he just left from a side door and got picked up down the block. The other kids were all late for school 'cause they didn't figure it out.

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crohnscyclist@reddit

We did it in college between all the Greek houses. The rules were you couldn't be hit at work, home or in a university building.

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karenaef@reddit

A kid in our metro area was killed playing this game. It’s not to be played in cars, folks.

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thisismyhumansuit@reddit

Never heard of it growing up in two different states, but I see the posts around here from residents, telling parents to remind their kids not to run around in traffic for the game, and not to chase a person down when you're in a car.

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r2k398@reddit

No.

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ToneBeneficial4969@reddit

We would have to mark the target with pen or marker.

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Ok_Umpire2173@reddit

Yes, it was organized at school but not allowed to be played on school property. You entered your name and were assigned a random target with one week to spray them with a water gun. Failure to eliminate your target eliminates you as well. I’d guess roughly 300 kids played my senior year.

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