Senior Assassin – A Tradition of Last Person Standing

Senior Assassin is a game that puts everyone’s stealthy skills to the test. It is a game played by seniors at many high schools, where each pair of partners are assigned another set to “assassinate.” Each assassin may kill their targets by spraying them with a water gun. This year we had 52 out of 92 seniors participate.

There are many rules that make this game work. The game does not occur anywhere on campus or at any events off campus that are run by the school. No one can be “killed” on campus or in the parking lots after games or practices. Anywhere else is fair game except for places of religious practice, someone’s workplace, and houses if you are not invited in. If you are wearing a bathing suit or your underwear, you cannot be shot. In order for the “kill” to count, you must get a clear video that shows you shooting your target. The point of the game is to assassinate as many people as you can with help from your partner, while not getting killed yourself. At the end of the game, the last person standing wins $230.

Seniors Gabriella Gianascoli and Lauren Coureas both agreed that the reason they participated in senior assassin is that it was a great way to end senior year and one of the last opportunities to do something as a class before everyone leaves. Aedan Somers and John Ermini admitted that the reason they participated in the first place is that they wanted to win the money. As of April 30th, Aedan is still in the running to win, while John has been eliminated.

There are different ways you can be eliminated. You can be assassinated, or you can simply get out after a couple of weeks if you have not killed anyone yet. John Ermini gave up his life just last week when he let Caleb Choe and James Tyler assassinate him. John shared, “they had been waiting outside my house, and I knew I only had three hours left until I was out of the game because I hadn’t assassinated anyone, so I thought I might as well just let them get me.” A bounty list is released at the end of each week with people’s names who have yet to make a kill. Whoever is on that list is fair game for anyone still left in the game to assassinate. Gabriella, who is still left in the game on April 30th, explains that every week she really enjoys chasing after new targets, and she especially likes the bounty list because that gives you many options of people to assassinate and makes it easier to find people to “kill.” Lauren likes the Instagram page that was created for everyone to see all the “kills” because she always gets a good laugh out of it.

Although the game has gotten very positive feedback from the senior class, there are still things about it that they do not like and things they want to change. Aedan explained that he doesn’t like having to strip down in order to be safe. Lauren felt that the rules were continuously changing throughout the weekly game, and she wishes they were more set in stone before it began. If Gabriella could change one thing, she would change all restaurants to safe zones so she could enjoy dinner with her friends without getting paranoid. She has really enjoyed the game so far and taken it very seriously. Although it can be stressful at times for her, she takes precautions such as walking out in a bathing suit every morning in order to not get assassinated. She has had four kills so far and believes she will win the game. Although Lauren is out, she said the secretive aspect to the game made is stressful and exciting at the same time and she is happy she participated. Aedan’s experience was very fun and allowed him to make new friends. John agrees with Aiden and comments that the reason the game should continue into years ahead is that it does a great job of getting people to interact who usually wouldn’t.

Overall all the seniors believe the purpose of the game is a way for the majority of the senior class to do something together before they graduate in a fun and memorable way.