The Class of 2026 had some struggles with running the game of Senior Assassin this April. The Class of 2025 brought the game to MICDS. Senior Assassin is a group game in which each voluntary participant is assigned a target and must eliminate that target by shooting them with a water gun. Whether the game was done on or off campus was a main aspect that caused debates between the students and the administration this year. Senior Assassin has been popular at many other schools recently, despite being a new tradition at MICDS. 

“People often talk about Senior Assassin like it’s a tradition,” Daniel George, Dean of the Class of 2026, said. The idea of “tradition” was a key part of the argument from the students, but George noted that the event had not been happening on campus for more than one year. “There are a lot of things that should be done off campus that have nothing to do with MICDS because there are so many things, from a litigation point of view, they’d be worried about. I think Senior Assassin goes into that,” George said. “I don’t think you need to formally organize something for it to happen.” 

Despite George’s beliefs about the game, senior students still had opinions on the matter. 

“I honestly thought the debate [about Senior Assassin] was pretty troubling because I was really excited for Senior Assassin, and I think it’s something that people look forward to all year,” Maddy Brooks ‘26 said. 

“I felt that [the debate around Senior Assassin] was a little extreme, and in my personal opinion, a bit of an overreaction, given that every other school in the area also does the exact same thing,” Katie Ferris ‘26 said. 

The administration was trying to give the seniors a way to play Senior Assassin differently; they suggested throwing silly string or marshmallows at people to eliminate them. “Yeah, the idea of silly string and marshmallows is kind of ridiculous. But we’re trying to make it work, right?” George said. 

“I like the marshmallows. I think that was a fun idea,” Ferris said. “I have seen other adaptations of the game. St. Joe was [also] having troubles with their principal about getting it approved.” 

On the other hand, “the other schools that I’ve talked to have no problems with it, and some of their teachers actually like it and think it’s a fun way to collaborate everyone in the grade into like one shared activity,” Ben Petersen ‘26 said. 

Science teacher Megumi Yoshioka-Tarver highlighted the importance of looking at the game in the current climate of the world. 

“With this current climate? Probably not. But I hope that all the seniors across the nation can come up with some new games that you guys can do. But not something to do with killing and living,” Yoshioka-Tarver said. 

The topic of senior class bonding also came up during the debate about Senior Assassin because the game is a way to bring people together.

“I feel like it really bonds our community,” Petersen said. “You could be assigned a target whom you’ve typically never talked to, and now you get to share the same experience with them and everyone in the grade. It just kind of helps everyone grow

closer together. And Dean George and other teachers trying to cancel Senior Assassin also kind of prompted growth within our grade, as everyone was bonding over the fact that we all wanted to do it, and how it was kind of crazy that they were trying to cancel it,” Petersen said.

“For example, the person I know has me [as their target], this is the most I’ve probably ever talked about that person and thought about them,” Ferris said. 

MICDS parents even had opinions on the matter. “When I told my parents that the Senior Assassin had been canceled, they were really upset about it, because they knew that my friends and I had been looking forward to it. We’d been talking about it all year, and they were honestly pushing for us to start our own Senior Assassin, unapproved by the school,” Brooks said.

“[My mom] was a little worried because she thought I’d be driving around in my car, shooting out of my window while driving. Also, she kept sending me news articles about kids going to jail for playing with real-looking water guns,” Petersen said. 

“I didn’t get any direct contact [from the parents],” George said, but Senior Assassin was nonetheless a topic at the dinner table for a few weeks.