High School Senior ‘Tebows’ at Graduation, Loses Diploma

What price high school immortality? Actually quite a lot, as it turns out.

  • Share
  • Read Later
Marc Piscotty/Reuters

Tebowing is officially not worth it.What’s the end of high school if not a time for end-of-the-year pranks that secure your legacy among fellow classmates and underclassmen? Unfortunately, not everyone got a kick out of one Florida senior’s joke. Seventeen-year-old Chuck Shiner decided to “Tebow” before his principal on stage while receiving his diploma, only to find the joke was on him.

Shiner was walking across the stage at Bishop Verot, a private Catholic school in Fort Meyers, Fla., ready to start the next chapter of his life studying mechanical engineering at the University of Central Florida, CBS Tampa reports. But as part of a $5 bet with his friends, he “Tebowed” before his principal—going down on one knee in prayer, as New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow does during NFL games.  “I was just doing it to make graduation memorable,” Shriner told Naples News.

School administrators didn’t think it was that funny. Worried it would inspire underclassmen to perform more elaborate pranks in the future, they withheld Shiner’s sheepskin. He did get it back eventually — just as soon as he cleaned the gym where the graduation ceremony took place.

(READ: Bradying: The Poor Man’s Tebowing)

That seems like a walk in the park compared to the punishment bestowed upon the perpetrators of a senior prank at Cascade High School in Clayton, Ind., where six students were suspended and a custodian was fired over 12,000 colorful Post-it notes stuck in elaborate designs on the windows of the school.

“We figured it’s cheap, easy, creative, it doesn’t damage anything,” one of the seniors told WISH-TV. The students were suspended for trespassing after hours, but they say they had permission and a key from a school board member and the head custodian was present during the prank.

60 more students were suspended after participating in a sit-in protesting the custodian’s firing, FOX59 News reports.

3M, the maker of Post-Its, is considering giving the suspended seniors scholarships, apparently. That’s all well and good, but what about hooking up the janitor and his sense of humor with an awesome job?

MORE: Tebowing.com Founder Begins His Off-Season