Assassinating senior safety

Lauren Wilson
2 days ago
3 min read

By Joshua Yan May 21, 2025

Stalking high schoolers and blocking incoming traffic are typically not activities one would deem school-appropriate. Given this, it was no surprise that this year’s senior assassin game sparked administrative intervention and controversy among the senior class.

For many, the most troubling aspect of senior assassin—senior spoons’ unofficial water gun analog—is its use of location sharing. During the game, participants have access to their targets’ locations at all times. Some find this unnerving, especially given the lack of a "terms and conditions" agreement. However, each person only has up to two assassins, randomly assigned, with their location each round. Were it not for the bounty system, this would rather effectively mitigate any risk of stalking.

With bounties, teams may expose their target's location to all game participants for 24 hours. Aside from the obvious breach in privacy from over a hundred people knowing a person’s location, this feature enables anyone to access a specific player’s location for their own purposes outside of the game. Also, those with bounties on them will almost inevitably reveal their addresses, turning a temporary privacy breach into a permanent one.

“There should have been some sort of way to limit location sharing to public locations. I knew of people who showed up to their targets’ homes or workplaces, which makes me uncomfortable even if there are no safety risks,” Senior Alisha Ahuja said.

Earlier on in the game, a popular tactic for eliminating targets was to block their paths, whether by standing in front of the target’s car or stopping a car in front of the target. Participants also utilized open car windows and opened others’ car doors to access their target. Although undeniably being effective strategies, these plays are unsafe, causing game organizers to ban them explicitly. Players are also strictly prohibited from playing senior assassin on campus—including the parking lot and surrounding sidewalk—during school hours. A violation of this rule prompted Principal Harveen Bal to make an announcement on March 26, listing expulsion as a possible consequence for future violations of the same nature.

Others believed the biggest controversy of senior assassin’s to be the frequent and inevitable rule abuses. To avoid being eliminated, some players cheated by turning off their locations or intentionally leaving their phones where they are not present; perpetrators were given warnings or—in some cases—kicked out entirely. Players also exploited loopholes: some participants blocked their targets’ garage door sensors to prevent escape—a bypass to the rule prohibiting players from physically blocking home entry. Game admins soon deemed this illegal because it still prevented targets from entering their homes. Some participants eliminated on purge days, which normally result in permanent elimination, convinced their assassins to report the elimination a day later so that they could buy back in. Contestants also engaged in bribery, both to stay in and to get easy eliminations.

“Because of the sheer amount of loopholes that players have discovered, it is impractical to thoroughly enforce the game’s rules. We do, however, have a zero-tolerance policy on school rule violations,” Anonymous Senior Game Organizer said.

Senior assassins, although effective as a means of generating competition and making a more memorable end of high school, remains a game with the primary goal of having fun. At the end of the day, winning the game by breaking the rules can end up tarnishing both a clean record and honest character.

About the Contributors

Joshua Yan is a Senior at Leland High School. This is his second year as a staff writer for the school newspaper. He likes playing piano, playing games with friends, and pen spinning.

Ryan Park is an artist for Advanced Journalism in Leland High School. He wants to be able to improve his drawing skills during his time in Journalism. He likes watching anime, hanging out with his friends, and going to the gym.