Marietta High seniors TP campus, continuing school’s decades-old tradition

Incoming seniors at Marietta High School rolled into the new school year with stockpiles of Charmin.

Nearly 400 students descended upon the high school Monday night, on the eve the return to classes, and covered the campus with toilet paper.

It’s part of a time-honored, back-to-school tradition at Marietta High School that’s come to be known as “senior rollin.” The tradition dates back more than 60 years, according to school legend, and originally started out as a senior prank each year on the last day of class.

It’s evolved over the years and has become a school-sanctioned ritual carried out on the eve of opening day.

“From listening to the kids, they were just so happy to do something that reminds them of being normal,” Marietta High School Principal Keith Ball said. “And not having to deal with the life distraction of all that COVID has brought to them, and trying to feel like they’re reconnected to the school.”

Classes resumed Tuesday for Marietta City Schools.

The Class of 2022′s outpouring of senior pride Monday night left the Marietta High School campus flush with “copious amounts” of two-ply when students returned, according to Ball. Sheets of TP covered trees, dangled from atop school buildings and even draped Northcutt Stadium, the Blue Devils’ football field.

Monday’s senior roll was a bonding event. Ball noted it represented the first time most of the students have all been together as classmates in a normal school setting since March 2020, when City of Marietta and Cobb County schools closed down due to the pandemic.

“I would say this year, it’s very unique and special to the seniors because obviously their junior year and part of their sophomore year was just an absolute mess with COVID and all things related to shutdowns and quarantines,” Ball said. “Not that toilet paper always makes us feel that way. It’s more about being around their friends.”

Students made signs, some painted their parking spaces and many signed the “Operation Graduation” banner, a pledge to graduate on time. The banner will hang in one of the school’s grand staircases

DJ Rick Moss, a Marietta High School alum, played music through the night. About 200 seniors showed up early Tuesday morning to watch the sunrise together on the first day of classes.

Ball said he will remember Class of 2022 fondly because it was the class of freshman coming in when he took over as the school’s principal in 2018.

“It meant a lot to the staff,” he said. “A lot of them were crying happy tears because they had not been connected to a student on somewhat of a normal face-to-face manner for a long, long time. So it means a lot.”