Say What? Nude Water-Gun Tag Getting Columbus, Ohio High School Seniors in Trouble

Ah, the rights of passage! One of the strangest is when someone graduates from high school--not really much of an accomplishment in today's public schools--and they think they can go nuts. Senior pranks are all the rage this time of year: some are harmless, some are not. And then there are the traditions like Senior Skip Day, the Senior Class Picnic, and Senior Naked Water Tag Week. Wait, what?

According to Columbus, Ohio police and distressed school officials the tradition of an ongoing water gun fight between outgoing seniors has taken a decidedly nasty turn with participants now battling between houses naked. That's right: your precious little flowers are running around in the middle of the day shooting water at each other without a stitch of clothing on.

Senior Tag -- the annual underground game of tag with a twist -- has returned this spring and already claimed a victim. Dublin police arrested a 17-year-old Dublin Coffman student Tuesday afternoon when he was spotted running naked between houses on Monterey Drive.

In Senior Tag, teenagers stalk and chase one another around town, aiming to hit opponents with water from squirt guns. The last man standing wins. The game typically lasts for weeks. "As long as they are not breaking the law, we don't have a problem with it," Dublin Lt. Heinz von Eckartsberg said.

But in many of the Senior Tag games, students who are naked can't be tagged out. The Coffman student was charged with disorderly conduct. But, with no prior arrests, he'll likely serve only community-service time through the city's diversion program, said von Eckartsberg. Other students who were playing the game in the area weren't taken in, von Eckartsberg said, because "they weren't naked."

The nature of the game makes it easy for fun to cross into illegal activity: trespassing, public nudity and reckless driving.

Fortunately, the Columbus Dispatch is not posting any pictures of this fad.