By Rand Fisher, Staff Writer

When the weather heats up and the end of school nears, a question that is rarely talked about but always in the back of the minds of students and administrators all across the country is, “What will this year’s senior prank be?”

This year, Reynolds High School students returned from the Memorial Day weekend to find the spirit rock that is usually covered in spray paint instead covered under a dirt pile along with an orange binder and small tree.

Scratched into a small area of the rock still visible through the dirt was the phrase “Never again.” Reaction to the spirit rock — new to campus last spring — was mixed at best.

“It was a good idea at first,” sophomore Austin Sykes said of the spirit rock, “but then no one painted it and it sat there looking ugly.”

Assistant Principal David Small said the original plan for the spirit rock was to “provide an outlet for students to positively express themselves,” so sports teams could celebrate their wins without rolling the campus in toilet paper, or for groups such as the drama department to advertise events around campus: The play “Pippin” was highlighted on the spirit rock earlier this year, and the men’s swimming team boasted of its conference championship there as well.

“You won the conference — which you’re expected to do — you didn’t win states,” Small reasoned. “So why waste $200-$300 on toilet paper?”

Although the spirit rock has been painted to advertise events and also featured Twitter hashtags #prayforryan and #prayfordanielle when area students were featured in the news, students grew annoyed with the addition to the campus. Some said it wasn’t painted often enough; others argued it was too small; and some felt it did not fit in with the classic look of Reynolds’ historic campus.

That’s where the seniors and their prank enter picture. A student involved in the burial, speaking on the condition of anonymity, explained the procedure to Pine Whispers.

“It took 10 people about an hour do it,” the source said. “The rock already had a lean to it, so we dug a hole next to it and just had to push it. We would have dug it deeper, but we ran into a pipe, so we stopped there.”

So where do the tree and orange binder come in? As students returned for classes Tuesday, they learned that the seniors had buried the spirit rock and put a dogwood tree in the spot along with a dogwood tree “care manual.” The dogwood tree was planted because it is illegal to dig up a dogwood — the official flower of the Tarheel state — in North Carolina.

“No person, firm or corporation shall dig up, pull up or take from the land of another or from any public domain,…or any flowering dogwood…without having in his possession a permit to dig up, pull up or take such plants, signed by the owner of such land, or by his duly authorized agent. Any person convicted of violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor only punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00) for each offense. ” –North Carolina Legislature

The reasoning was clear: You can’t dig up the rock without digging up the tree. RIP, spirit rock. The senior source confirmed that the spirit rock burial is considered this year’s senior prank, but other ideas included “moving the rock or having a Slip ‘n Slide on the front lawn for the seniors to make fun of people taking exams.”

Reaction around campus has mostly been an appreciation of the humorous but harmless prank. There are no plans or discussion to dig up the spirit rock, according to Small, who appreciated the rock enough that his Twitter account photo still features the spirit rock when it had #prayfordanielle painted on it.

“My initial reaction to the spirit rock being buried was it was a better version of a senior prank and was a classy and positive move,” Small said. “I would like to see the rock put near the Gfeller Stage, because it is more of a hangout place for students over the auditorium, but it will be difficult to move the rock.”