When high school senior Kylan Scheele decided his senior prank was going to be listing his alma mater, Truman High School for sale on Craigslist for the whopping sum of $12,725, he had no idea his harmless prank would become national news and a rallying cry for free speech and freedom of expression across the United States. But that’s exactly what happened when Scheele pushed SEND and the ad listing Harry Truman’s namesake – someone this clever little newshound thinks would get a big kick out of the gag – for sale on Craigslist. Let the games begin.

We don’t even want to know the number of phone calls Independence School District staffers fielded after the ad went live, but the price for the ad is well worth the vision of how that all went down. Additionally, given the asking price in the ad for the brand-new athletic fields, the over-sized dining room, as well as a host of other amenities for a measly $12,000 and change should tell anyone with an ounce of common sense and a sense of humor that this was obviously a joke. But instead of getting a good guffaw or a rousing belly laugh from the proceedings, the Independence School District, most definitely short on the humor and common sense end of things, went in completely the opposite direction and “out of an abundance of caution,” meted out the ridiculous punishment of not letting Scheele walk for graduation.

This humor-driven, practical joking news-dog would like to raise a toast to Kylan Scheele for pulling off one of the greatest senior pranks of all time. It will surely go down in the annals of Truman High School history as the most epic senior prank ever, easily beating out turning three goats loose in the school numbered 1, 2 & 4. It should be noted as well that Scheele’s entire family was in town to see him walk across the stage at the RLDS Auditorium – with honors no less – carrying a 3.9 GPA through his senior year. This pooch hopes they had quite the party all to themselves and jeered a great jeer at the ISD. But the District, in its woefully callous decision, denied the entire family this milestone that culminates 13 years of schoolwork.

This critically-thinking news hound thinks this is a far cry from the quality individuals that occupied Central Office nary a dozen years ago. Cooler and wiser heads prevailed then, unlike now when the district is run more like an autocracy. Using the graduation ceremony as a tool or a punishment is inherently wrong. Sadly, however, this is the humorless world in which we live today. In this particular situation the Independence School District could certainly learn a little about being an adult from one of their students. Way to keep it classy ISD.