As another school year winds to an end in the upcoming weeks. Students are preparing themselves for the graduation stage with their final essays, quizzes, and senior year traditions. Amongst the age-old traditions like senior prom and signing yearbooks, a new tradition has slipped its way into the lives of many students across the country.

This new senior fad is a game going by a variety of different names: senior splashin, water wars, or most commonly, senior assassin.

The game itself adheres to a simple set of rules: players are assigned a pair of their classmates to ‘eliminate’ with water guns, if you get splashed, you are out of the game.

What started out as a childlike game amongst upcoming graduates has now turned into a chip on the shoulders of many parents, teachers, and students alike.

Senior Assassin is typically not a school-sanctioned game, meaning the rules and game activity are student run, leaving the door open for many issues throughout the game.

For starters, most games have entry fees that fund a cash prize for the winner(s). This incentivizes a large player-base, and makes for some hostile reactions when players get eliminated.

This anger is presented through aggression towards the game administrators, who sometimes quit, saying the pressure ruining the fun of the game.

The cash prize also drives players into making poor decisions for the sake of the money, including speeding and other vehicular law-breaking, trespassing, and sometimes even violence.

The nature of the game is light-hearted, but in a climate of frequent gun violence, especially in American schools, older generations often do not understand Senior Assassin, and misinterpret it for violent behavior. This leads to many unnecessary police calls, false weapon reports, and even violence.

There have been numerous cases of gun violence as a result of Senior Assassin; several student players have been shot by real weapons due to a misinterpretation of their plastic weapons. This was the case with an 18-year-old Floridia student earlier this year, who was shot in the arm and hospitalized after being mistaken for a home invader this February.

Another teen from Texas was critically injured during a game of Senior Assassin when he attempted to hop onto the back of another student’s moving jeep, landing on his head and causing himself a severe injury. He was put on life support only weeks before his high school graduation.

It is not just students’ physical well-being that is being disrupted by this game, but academics as well. Several teachers here at Manchester High School have noted how distracting the game is from student’s academic performance. Many students get extremely caught up in the game, talking constantly about the rounds and eliminations.

Senior Assassin, while fun, can cause serious problems when not run by responsible admins and played by responsible students. No amount of money is worth students’ physical or mental health.