Stoughton High Administration Asks that “Senior Assassination” Game End “Immediately”

administration wants to put an end to the popular game for soon-to-be graduating seniors known as “Senior Assassination” before anything detrimental happens—because on Friday morning it almost did.

SHS administrators held an assembly Friday morning for members of the Class of 2011 asking that they stop the game of “Senior Assassination” after an elderly woman called Stoughton Police Friday at 7 a.m. when she saw a stranger with what she believed to be a gun in her Robin Lane yard.

Instead, it was a student with a squirt gun.

There are different variations of “Senior Assassination,” but it is a game typically played with a water gun or squirt gun and the last one standing is the winner.

In a call made to parents of the class of 2011, Stoughton High assistant principal Hope Fernandes said: “The Stoughton Police informed me that an elderly woman was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital where she is being treated for cardiac concerns. She saw a stranger with what she believed to be a gun in her yard and called 911. The police responded to a gun incident; this could have had a tragic ending for a student at Stoughton High School.”

“We don’t want some tradition to end badly,” Fernandes told Stoughton Patch. She said that the game was not being played with “malice,” but at the same time was not taking into consideration “the community at large.”

While some might view it as a “senior right of passage” to play this game, Fernandes said the “risk is too dangerous.”

She said the seniors who organized the game were spoken to and “understand the ramifications.”

No students were disciplined.

Fernandes said that the key message from the Friday morning assembly was that the administration “doesn’t want anyone harmed [and] wants everyone at graduation.”

It’s the administration’s attempt to put a stop to an innocent game before anything goes awry and there are unintended consequences.

The full text of Assistant Principal Hope Fernandes’ call home to senior parents is below:

The Senior assembly held [Friday] morning was as a result of an incident caused by a game called "Senior Assassinations".  The Stoughton Police informed me that an elderly woman was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital where she is being treated for cardiac concerns. She saw a stranger with what she believed to be a gun in her yard and called 911. The police responded to a gun incident; this could have had a tragic ending for a student at Stoughton High School. For this reason, the school administration, in conjunction with the Stoughton Police Department, ask that this game end immediately. It is our intention to prevent the possibility of something tragic happening to a student at Stoughton High School. If anyone has questions or concerns please call the Office.