This year, the head of a boarding school in Delaware had a more personal experience with the senior prank season. Joy McGrath, the Head of School at St. Andrew’s in Middletown, found herself at the center of an unexpected prank orchestrated by over 70 senior students. Reports from Today and CBS affiliate KYW-TV revealed that the students decided to camp out in McGrath’s kitchen overnight, creating quite the spectacle.
The incident quickly gained traction on social media after the school shared a video clip of the prank on its Instagram page. According to the school, the entire senior class stealthily entered McGrath’s home around 1 a.m. on May 19, settling down for a “good night’s sleep” throughout the first floor of her residence.
The next morning, when McGrath made her way downstairs for her morning coffee at 6 a.m., she was taken aback to discover that she wasn’t alone. Every nook and cranny of her kitchen was occupied by the mischievous seniors, tightly packed like sardines. It took a moment for McGrath to register that this was a senior prank, as she later shared with Today. In the video, she opens the kitchen door, only to be greeted by a group of giggling students. After a brief moment of surprise, she jokingly addresses them as “little bunnies,” provoking laughter from the pranksters.
The prank had been conceived a month earlier when McGrath invited a group of students over for a midnight breakfast after the senior prom. KaiChun “Austin” Chuang, an 18-year-old student, disclosed to Today that someone playfully mentioned the idea of spending the night in the living room. A few of them exchanged knowing glances, and the plan began to take shape. To facilitate their entry, McGrath’s husband, Ty Jones, intentionally left the front door unlocked, as reported by Today.
Chuang recorded McGrath’s reaction to the elaborate prank, capturing her initial surprise and subsequent amusement. Speaking to KYW-TV, he shared that the students agreed to quietly go to bed to avoid waking up their unsuspecting target, and true to their word, McGrath was undisturbed. She even mentioned to Today that she could sleep through anything.
Acknowledging the success of the prank, the school posted on Instagram that the Class of 2023 had pulled one over on McGrath. However, in a letter to the school published on May 26, McGrath expressed that she was not bothered by the prank in the least. In fact, she found it quite amusing. Reflecting on the incident, she wrote, “How can I be upset when this place really is a dream? It’s just funny that in our cell phone-limited and social-media-shunning school that anything we do — much less the most ordinary of moments — could ‘go viral.'”
