Roll on

North Little Rock seniors pitch decades-old tradition

North Little Rock High School junior Claire Reid poses for a picture taken by her father (not shown) in her family’s front lawn Aug. 17. Claire had her traditional first-day-of-school portrait taken in front of a toilet-papered home after “Senior Roll Night.” Seniors “rolling” the homes of juniors has been tradition at the high school since the early 1990s.
North Little Rock High School junior Claire Reid poses for a picture taken by her father (not shown) in her family’s front lawn Aug. 17. Claire had her traditional first-day-of-school portrait taken in front of a toilet-papered home after “Senior Roll Night.” Seniors “rolling” the homes of juniors has been tradition at the high school since the early 1990s.

It's just before 11 p.m. when neighbors come out to investigate the noise. On Donaghey Drive in North Little Rock, teenagers are flinging dozens of rolls of toilet paper through the sky, the ragged paper hooking leaves and limbs before plummeting to the ground.

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Traditionally, junior victims — not their parents — are expected to clean up the mess after “Senior Roll Night.” Junior Savannah Shelton gets a head start before heading to the first day of school Aug. 17.

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North Little Rock High School senior Hayley Scott (right) confers with classmates about whose home they will hit first on “Senior Roll Night.”

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Before the rolling begins, the seniors gather in a parking lot on the evening of Aug. 16 to receive a few instructions, rules and spreadsheets containing the juniors’ addresses. They spend most of the night before the first day of school throwing toilet paper and leaving junk spray painted with the school colors of blue and gold on the lawns of junior classmates.

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A toilet paper roll rests in the front yard of the Reid home on the morning of the first day of school.

Soon, the lawn is covered with scraps of paper and colored spray foam. A tire hangs from a street sign nearby. Sometime before dawn, a twin-size mattress is heaved on the roof. A few houses over, amid a similar scene, a discarded television rests on the lawn. Spray-painted in blue and gold, the graffitied screen reads, "We're kind of a B16 deal."

Since the early '90s, a mess like this has awaited many a North Little Rock High School junior on the morning of the first day of school, and they have their senior classmates to thank.

Krystie Ellis of North Little Rock rolled houses as a senior in 1996 -- she and a car full of friends in homemade T-shirts, loaded with dozens of rolls of toilet paper. This year, it was her daughter Madyson's turn.

"Back then, it was pretty much like it is now," Ellis says. "You'd all meet up the night before and go and roll your friends' houses."

The event -- which, according to principal Randy Rutherford, is entirely student-organized -- is a little more high-tech now. Seniors use Twitter and Instagram to organize; order custom-made commemorative T-shirts; and gather at a communal spot for last-minute reminders.

Among those? No eggs, no destruction, no reckless driving. After that, students split up, driving around until well past midnight to "decorate" the houses of juniors, who often wait up in anticipation of being "victimized."

"I remember hoping it would happen," senior Callie Bonds says of staying up until her home was hit in 2014.

For families, the tradition can be like waiting for a destructive Santa Claus. Beth Reid has awakened to a mess-covered lawn two years in a row now, first for now-senior Courtney, and this year for junior Claire.

"Last year we didn't prep for it," Reid says. "This year we moved anything breakable inside, and tucked our daughter's car in real close to ours so they'd have a hard time getting to it. We did this kind of thing when we were in high school, so we know it's in good fun."

Family on 08/26/2015

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