The only thing left was the smell

By BROOKE WOLFORD

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — As part of their senior prank, some graduating Coeur d’Alene High School students dropped a farewell present Tuesday afternoon on Lake City High School’s doorstep.

The CHS seniors drove to Lake City before the end of the school day to put dead fish in front of the school’s entrance. A sign that read, “Keep your d**n fish,” accompanied the mess. The sign, and the prank, is a reference to the annual spirit competition, Fight for the Fish, between CHS and Lake City.

The students dropped the fish at Lake City as part of their senior prank, a common high school occurrence when seniors plan a practical joke to collectively pull on their school.

Typical pranks in the past included the dismemberment of staff cars, gasoline fires sparked on school grounds and even trees planted in the middle of football fields, according to a Lake City staff member and former student.

“It’s kind of funny, really. There wasn’t really any damage or anything so it’s all in good fun. It just smelled like tuna,” Lake City isolation room assistant Christopher Ketron said.

Ketron said this prank caused less damage than those in the past.

“I’m for doing funny stuff but mostly to our own school,” CHS senior Landon Moulding said. “You generally don’t seem to prank another high school.”

Some Lake City students, however, didn’t think it was so funny. A few took to social media and expressed their frustrations at CHS students for being “immature,” and “disrespectful.” One Lake City senior, Dakotah Andrews, posted his thoughts about the prank on Facebook, which got several reactions from both Lake City and CHS students.

“Most of the comments on my post were apologies from past and current CHS students,” Andrews said in a message to The Press. Although the post was shared more than 50 times since Tuesday, people aren’t as opinionated offline.

“In real life, people are mostly keeping things to themselves, probably not wanting to risk losing our most precious event of the year, Fight for the Fish,” Andrews said.

Lake City is on a seven-year winning streak in Fight for the Fish. But contrary to Andrews’ concerns, there aren’t any plans for getting rid of the event. Troy Schueller, principal of CHS, said he doesn’t think this will result in a cancellation of Fight for the Fish.

“This doesn’t represent what true Vikings look like,” Schueller said.

Lake City principal Deanne Clifford said the prank caused very little trouble for the school. Sunny Graham, Lake City’s facility manager, confirmed the cleanup was quick and painless. They cleaned up the mess before students even got out of class. The students said the only thing left was the smell.