Elaborate plastic fork prank goes awry and gets Texas senior class suspended

About half the graduating class has been disciplined

The local community supports Texas senior class suspended for school prank (Facebook / Comfort Liquors)

Half a graduating class was suspended from a Texas high school after a "forking" prank landed with a thud.

About 40 senior students from Comfort High School Class of 2021 participated in pranking the school’s athletic field, according to local News 4 San Antonio.

"It was a harmless senior prank that all of us parents knew 100% what was going on," Hope Jay, a parent of two Comfort High School seniors, told News 4.

"They had planned as a group, you know, 40 students, which is half the senior class that comfort High School. They had planned to fork the field, which is putting plastic forks in the dirt."

She said the prank, for the most part, included balloons, a deer bust tilted crookedly on the wall and some saran wrap.

"There’s been no damage, no destruction, no graffiti, no defacing of property, and no police reports," Ms Jay said.

In a Facebook post with the hashtag #freetheforkingseniors, a student’s sister, Steel Lott, said while the larger group forked the field a smaller group entered the school to spray silly string and move furniture. But all got suspended no matter how they were involved, she said.

“They all got [suspended] for two weeks, they have to take all their finals, they aren’t allowed to participate in any senior activities next week, and (most recently) they’re out of [National Honour Society] until the advisory board decides otherwise,” she wrote.

“So the kids who only forked the field received the same punishment as the kids who broke into the school that night.”

School administrators, principal Darren William and district superintendent Tanya Monroe, told the outlet they wouldn’t discuss disciplinary actions or what damage was done.

Reporter Morgan Burrell posted photos of the damage online, including some streamers and rearranged furniture.

She said senior privileges were taken away while students in the top 10 per cent of the class - including the top two performing students at the school were part of the suspension - fear losing their graduating honours.

Shannon Tonroy, whose daughter is valedictorian, said parents thought the mass suspension was part of the school pranking the students in return.

"They have been coerced, hearsay rules," Ms Tonroy said. "They have been guilty without any evidence presented against them."

The school’s salutatorian was also suspended due to the prank, according to his father Bruce Lott.

"You’re looking at your top 10 you’re looking at your valedictorian, your salutatorian and you’re looking at your honour society kids," Mr Lott told News 4. "And this was, you know, a harmless prank that they were gonna do just kind of as a goodbye, you know, put a fork in us kind of a deal."

Residents of the district were more forgiving, with Comfort Liquors owners displaying a sign to congratulate the class of 2021.

"We’re so forking proud!" it said.