This spring Hastings High School has been buzzing with excitement as more than one hundred of the HHS senior class participated in the highly-anticipated Senior Assassin competition.  Held by the senior class, this tradition captivates the HHS community year after year. Senior Assassin, played in many high schools across the US, is a game in which each participant is assigned a target to “assassinate” with a water gun. The objective is to be the last person standing, having successfully “assassinated” your target while avoiding being “assassinated” yourself. It is not all just fun and games however; the last person standing will be refunded the value of their prom ticket!

The game has not only sparked a sense of friendly competition but has also become a source of entertainment and camaraderie among the seniors in their last few weeks of their secondary schooling lives. Many schools across the nation play Senior Assassin with slightly varied rules, but in Hastings, the rules are as follows: Every player has a target, and everyone is being targeted by another player. To eliminate your target, you must hit them with water from your water gun while they are not holding or wearing their safety item in a visible location. Each week, the stakes are raised with a new safety item that participants must carry to avoid being eliminated. For example, Week One kicked off with players carrying a plastic spoon at all times, and Week Three introduced pool floaties, filling the hallways with a sea of colorful inflatable rings. Despite the school being considered an off limits zone where no one could be eliminated, seniors were at risk if they did not have their safety item on their way to or from schools, so the items remained crucial. To the surprise of many, in Week Four, the safety item was a pacifier, a more outlandish safety item than had been used in previous years. Watching seniors walk around with pacifiers in their mouths not only added a humorous twist to the game, but also highlighted the lengths to which they were willing to go to stay in the competition. 

After weeks of intense gameplay, there are just two finalists left: Elias Mazur and Sharyn Belsky. “It is a lot of fun,” said one senior, adding that it was “something that I have been looking forward to all year…There’s something that comes out in a game like Senior Assassin for me, and it becomes less about the prize and more just a fun competition with your friends.”

The game has led to seniors bonding in new ways, whether through alliances or the shared experience of trying to stay in the game. Senior Assassin has become more than just a game, but a way of life for the departing seniors, and a way to bring humor to an otherwise bittersweet period of their high school career.