No, we’re not trying to start a new trend and no, we’re not joining the swim team. Once you are at our grown age, you will understand the art of the senior assassin and the vital use of swimming goggles. These flashy frames were the designated immunity item for Jackson-Reed’s annual senior assassin game!

Senior assassin is an immensely popular game played by graduating high school seniors across the nation. In essence, seniors at a particular school pool money to take part in the game, which is a large-scale game of tag using water guns. To play at JR, participants Venmoed an entry for $5 each to the organizers, which was pooled to become the $400 reward for the winner. Participants downloaded the Splashin app, which features location tracking that reloads every ten minutes to a randomly assigned target. All places are fair game except at work (which includes playing a sport), school, or home. Additionally, one could not be eliminated if they were driving a car. Seniors needed to get their target out in the first week to avoid being eliminated in the first round. “You have to shoot them with a water gun, but you can’t get them at their house or at school, wearing swim goggles gives you immunity,” senior Kiran Agrawal, who got eliminated in the first round for not taking out his target in time, explained. 

Players of the game go to great lengths to take out their target. Senior Becca Green had a memorable early exit in the first round. “The person who got me out hid in a trunk for 45 minutes and then popped out and shot me, super traumatizing.”

“I had a lot of fun, especially the first couple of weeks, but then the game really slowed down and people were less motivated to play,” senior Luther Hoy explained. “The goggle rule got really annoying because it was impossible to get people out and I had to wear goggles everywhere. One day I forgot to wear [them] going out of school and that was that.”

The game was organized by seniors Nico Anagnostopoulos and Laila Shahida. “[We] wanted to have a fun senior activity that wasn’t just a day long. We also wanted to unite the grade in a way and bring everyone closer, especially because our senior year is close to ending,” Anagnostopoulos explained.

In all, 86 seniors partook in JR’s game of senior assassin.

Though senior assassin has seen plenty of attention on social media for other schools’ outrageous tags, officials in the DC region have been warning seniors and onlookers alike to halt the game. Citing the realistic looking water guns raising concerns of witnesses and the increase in reports of senior assassin-related car crashes, public school districts like Montgomery and Loudoun County have prohibited the activities of senior assassins on school grounds. DCPS has yet to make a statement.

On the contrary, the seniors who participated in the game believe that it should become an annual tradition. “[Senior assassin] is super fun and a way to bring the senior class together,” Agrawal said. Green recommends the next organizers of the game to shorten the time period it occurs in: “Ours is still going on and now no one cares.” 

“The seniors next year should absolutely organize a senior assassin game! The advice I would give is to try to include more people from the grade,” senior Adrian Belmonte concluded. “Create second and third prize places as it will increase the incentive to win. I think senior assassin was a helpful distraction/motivation for many seniors who were feeling senioritis. It motivates you to come to school and get out of the house, at a time when all you want to do is stay home and sleep.”