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Students responded to the banning of Prank Day in their own way by dressing up as health and safety officers.
New Health and Safety laws, introduced on April 1, have put an end to the traditional Prank Day at Mahurangi College.
Prank Day has been an event run by Year 13 students for many years, involving a variety of antics to create harmless disorder around college and farewell school life.
This year students were informed they would not be able to organise the day, as new laws made staff responsible if there was an accident.
“For most students it was just good fun on their last day of school, but for some it was an opportunity to be a bit too silly and with the new Health and Safety regulations we decided to put a stop to it,” Mahurangi College principal David Macleod says.
“As schools we need to constantly anticipate possible hazards and take active steps to mitigate against them.”
To compensate for the ban, school staff put on a breakfast for the students, who all showed up in health and safety uniform to acknowledge the change.
“It will take some getting used to by students, but I think it’s a good compromise,” head boy Nathan Dick says.
Head girl Sarah Wilson says the initial response from students was quite negative, even though they understood the reasoning behind the change, but the feedback on the breakfast was very positive.
Student representative on the Board of Trustees Jamie Peterson says the financial risk to the school is too great if something were to go wrong.
Mr Macleod says it is important to have fun at school, but that the risk posed by a ‘prank day’ to other students makes it irresponsible for the college to allow it.
