About 20 seniors at a Johnson County high school did not receive their diplomas with their classmates Tuesday night and face criminal charges -- all over what they call a class prank.
Justin Strickland, 17, said he and some classmates broke into Alvarado High School for a class prank late Thursday night.
"It was really one of those spur-of-the-moment things," he said.
They wrote on windows with shoe polish, moved furniture out of the teacher's lounge and basically made a big mess in the hallways.
"[It was] just pretty much toilet paper, confetti, silly string," he said. "The No. 1 rule was make sure nothing gets broken, and we stuck to it."
But school administrators aren't laughing.
They told the students they could walk across the stage at the graduation ceremony but won't get their diplomas until they clean up gum from school desks on Monday and Tuesday.
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But that's not their only punishment. Police are charging the students with trespassing on school property.
"The big issue is them being there and it was unauthorized by the school district," said Alvarado Police Chief Brad Anderson. "It seemed like it crossed the line."
But parents say the district and police are overreacting.
"The fact of charging them and sending them to jail? I think that's harsh," said Strickland's mother, Shelia.
"The torture and the torment for a 17-year-old to go sit a day, an hour, in jail, to me is ridiculous," said Melanie Bell, another mother.
Justin Strickland said he has worked hard to get good grades and plans to go to Hill College. He said he has never been in trouble before -- except for a speeding ticket -- and doesn't want to have a criminal record.
"It could be harder to get a job," he said. "You've got a background now -- over just a silly prank that's not that big of a deal."
