Marietta High School seniors roll school on first day of classes

Marietta High School covered in toilet paper on first day

The senior class hi-jinks got off to a quick start at Marietta High School on Thursday morning, as the Class of 2014 thoroughly rolled the front and side of the school with toilet paper just hours before the doors opened for the first day of class.

School principal Leigh Colburn took it all in stride, telling reporters that “it appears to have snowed in Marietta.”

“They’re just trying to show their school spirit, said Colburn, who has been principal at Marietta High for 10 years.

“My students know that if you do something you can’t clean up on your own and you can’t take care of on your own, then I’m going to consider it vandalism,” the principal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“They’ll have it cleaned up by noon, or they’ll have different consequences than just cleaning it up,” she said.

While it’s a 50-year, annual tradition at Marietta High for members of the senior class to toilet paper the school, “this is only the second time they’ve done it the first day,” Colburn said.

“One of the seniors texted me at about 3:30 and said, ‘Mrs. Colburn, the school’s rolled and I just wanted to let you know that everyone’s home safe and sound,’” the principal said.

Senior Zach Sheram said he invited 40 classmates to take part in the prank, and 30 people showed up in the wee hours of the morning Thursday.

“We brought about 1,200 rolls of toilet paper, and we came out here and tried to do the best job we’ve ever seen,” he said.

Sheram, 17, said it took the group about 90 minutes to complete the job.

“We were all looking out for [police] and ducking every time a car came by, but no one ever showed up,” he said.

“We thought last year’s [senior class] didn’t do a very good job, so we wanted to show people how it should be done,” Sheram said. “The first day of school, we wanted the freshmen to come and see this is how we do it.”

Sheram’s principal agreed that she would give high marks for the thoroughness of the rolling.

“This is a high-quality job,” Colburn said.