This past week the class of 2024 Senior Assassin Instagram page went live. This event has been a tradition in every senior graduating class for many years. Though this event is not school-affiliated it is exclusive to Danbury High School seniors. Rules of the game include immunity with a pool floatie during even hours, safe times before the start of the school day, and submission of a video of player elimination. Although Senior Assassin is a friendly game with water guns and floaties, it is extremely intense and forces players to think about their every next move.
One of the last teams standing last year was Thomas Schoelkopf and his partner Sharva Karthikeyan. Schoelkopf’s situation during the game was very challenging. Being that he was a spring athlete and heavily involved in other clubs he had to manage his schedule very wisely. Schoelkopf explains how he “had to really mix up [his] schedules and be ready to run from our practices as soon as they ended” and emphasizes how “ going anywhere was a little challenging.” Despite all the tension during the game, Schoelkopf doesn’t regret the experience and even goes on to say that “Life was great during the game” afterall, he was “motivated by the cash and also thought of winning.”
2023 graduate, Hope Durkin, played in last year’s round of senior assassin as well. She was very excited about this event, it is something that seniors typically have a lot of fun participating in. Durkin admits that “it was a lot of fun, the first day [she] got [her] target’s” but it wasn’t an easy task, she “was on top of a car while it was driving around a parking lot trying to get [her] target”. Unfortunately in Durkin’s case, it was only one round before the exciting energy wore out. Not long into the game, Durkin got word of the horrors occurring, “I was getting told that people’s cars were getting damaged, a jeep cover was cut, someone got rear-ended, and I immediately wanted nothing to do with it,” Durkin confessed.
With seniors being so excited about graduation, these fun events can start to become too extreme. Raising the question, ‘How much is too much?’.
While there are rules in place to avoid dangerous incidents, it seems as if they might not be enough. When it comes to serious matters such as car accidents, charges could be pressed. There have even been police calls in the past due to “trespassing”. At what point should this behavior be disqualified from the game to protect the competitors?
