Student injured in prank

A senior prank at Corona del Mar High School injured at least one student Thursday, administrators said.

A girl was hurt when a group of students knocked her to the ground in the midst of a food fight started by upperclassmen, Newport-Mesa Unified School District spokeswoman Laura Boss said.

“Senior pranks are historically a part of the last few weeks of school, unfortunately,” she said.

Administrators had caught wind of a planned prank and tried to shield the rest of the school from it by delaying underclassmen’s break until after the seniors returned to class, Boss said.

“It was good planning except that the activity the seniors planned was a food fight that caused extensive cleanup to the campus and not something that could be done before the rest of the classes came out to break,” she said.

Other students joined in the food fight when they saw the aftermath, and before administrators stopped them, the female student was injured, Boss said.

“Her parents took her to be checked out by emergency services, and she is now home with her parents,” she said.

Principal Tim Bryan addressed the incident with an email sent to parents that afternoon.

The subject line read, “This Was Not A Prank.”

“As a result of the ‘prank,’” he said, “we’ll be required to spend time and effort to clean the school, and disappointingly some students suffered injuries.”

Administrators will be on campus Friday morning where they will visit each senior class and talk about possible consequences.

“We would appreciate your support at home in encouraging all of our students to make good choices as we approach the end of the year,” Bryan wrote.