Senior Assassin is an annual tradition that high school seniors participate in before they leave.
The formatting and rules of the game vary from school to school. North’s game is run by a senior who volunteers to be in charge. This person makes the Instagram account, sends out assignments, and posts videos of people getting out. This year’s prize money is $500 for the 54 seniors who participated in the games. There was also a new element to the game this year. In years past, targets have been randomly assigned, but this year the senior in charge decided to pair up close friends. As a result, there were many betrayals.

“Senior Assassin was a very fun experience, although it was pretty stressful. I got two kills, but I am now out. In the beginning round, you were placed with people you knew, which was an interesting way of doing it, but it made hunting them down a little bit easier. I definitely recommend that juniors play next year,” said senior Emily Janowski.

However, while it may feel all fun and games, partaking can be very stressful for students. There is constant paranoia of who may be hiding around a corner, being afraid of going out and getting caught. The biggest issue this year was not knowing who to trust. Anyone could betray you.

“I was paranoid. I was stressed getting home and seeing shadows behind cars, wondering if that car usually parks on this street. My managers gave me security guards to walk me out, escorting me out with security,” said senior Hannah Inmon.

While the game is a fun tradition for many, there has been some controversy this year. There was an incident in Gurnee where a group of students, not from North, entered a diner with ski masks on in search of their target. The group also carried water guns that looked like real guns. The commotion caused a concealed-carry holder in the dinner to display his weapon.

“As someone who is a community member, if I saw an individual run into a restaurant with a ski mask and water gun, I would panic and I would also be concerned for people who do have concealed carry who could potentially stand up and ward off a situation. So now we’re in a dangerous situation for both the people who are there and for the students who are running it because now they are considered armed and dangerous. They need to have a different way to approach it,” said senior AP Government teacher Erin Wise.

Another yearly senior tradition is senior sunrise and senior sunset.

To commence their final school year, seniors gather at the break of dawn to watch the sunrise and take pictures with friends. Seniors are still working on college applications, deciding where they even want to go or what they want to do with their lives, and preparing themselves for the big changes and big goodbyes that they will soon deal with.

Then in May, when most are finalizing their futures, there’s senior sunset. Seniors gather again on the field decked out in their college merch, signing yearbooks, and watching “High School Musical 3” to get them ready for graduation that is soon to come.

This year there were some struggles when it came to the planning of senior sunset and questions about if it would even happen.

“Firstly, we were struggling to find a sponsor for the event. Usually, Student Council hosts the event, but this year, they were unable to because they’re hosting a junior-senior bonfire in April. So we reached out to other groups and we were having a tough time, but we finally found a sponsor for us, and we’re going to host senior sunset with the sponsorship of FBLA,” said senior Jayashri Madan.