MARIETTA, Ga. — Police are investigating threats made to a metro high school principal after she punished students for a long-running senior prank many consider a Marietta High tradition.
Channel 2's Ross Cavitt talked to the principal Friday, who told him she's had many more problems with the parents after doling out discipline for the annual toilet paper prank.
"She should really try to understand this is a tradition, that we should be able to do it without her getting mad at us," student Priscilla Omana said.
Just hours before the football game, seniors were reluctantly cleaning up their handiwork from earlier this week.
"My stance has been the same the whole way through, that it could not be, that it shall not be done, that there would be consequences," Marietta High School Principal Dr. Forrestella Taylor said.
Taylor told Cavitt that despite some complaints students were blindsided by the discipline, she warned students and parents alike she could not condone the middle-of-the-night rolling.
This year Marietta police broke it up shortly after it started, and the principal dished out in-school discipline to those involved.
Students worry the in-school suspension will stain their permanent records.
"They're just worried about colleges not being able to accept us because they see vandalism on our record at school because they'll be able to see that," Omana said.
Taylor said the senior tradition used to involve just a few people, but has exploded to a safety issue.
"When social media allowed that to grow to a group of well over 200 students that's when it became an issue," Taylor said.
Taylor told Cavitt the kids have accepted their punishment with dignity. The parents -- not so much.
"The kids are great, it's the adults that unfortunately have taken on a negative tone, which is really not a reflection of what our students have experienced here," Taylor said.
Students, parents upset with punishment for toilet-papering of school
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