“If I did offend anybody, then I apologize,” said Andrew Carel, a senior at Auburn Riverside High School, near Tacoma Washington.
An apology may not be enough to let Carel and his friend Kyle off the hook. Not after the prank they pulled this morning at the school.
“We bought the bananas, and then got some fishing line, got about 3 feet of fishing line and the tied them up on the balcony,” Carel said.
As for why they strung up bananas—he says students nickname that stairwell “The Jungle” because black students hang there.
“And they all hang out under the stairs, and we just call it the jungle because that’s what even the black people call it too. It didn’t seem like too big a deal, because everyone seemed to take it as a joke,” Carel said.
Not everyone seemed to think it was funny, from what other students say happened.
“I see a bunch of crowd of people, and I see the black people over here and the white section over here, and they’re going back and forth, like mad,” said freshman Teryn Henrichs.
Auburn police say a school security guard tried to break it up by escorting one of the black students away. But when the guard put his hand on the student’s back, the student allegedly assaulted the guard. That teen was subsequently arrested.
“I hope your friends understand the seriousness of what you did, and not just blowing this off as no big deal,” one Auburn parent said. “My children are black and I wouldn’t allow them to use that kind of language or treat someone like that ever.”
Carel’s friends are defending his actions.
“Well, we’re teenagers,” one said.
Carel, who’s supposed to graduate tomorrow, says he now knows how offensive his prank was.
“I just got caught up in the moment and wanted to do something funny, and in the end it didn’t really work out too well,” Carel said.