Property damage, racial slur mar traditional Homecoming Week pranks

Every year during homecoming week students extend the festivities into the evening, pulling pranks on classmates and school staff. The predominant prank, as was visible during the week of Sept. 25 to 29, is toilet papering houses and property. It’s very visible, but it doesn’t cause any damage, according to some recipients.
“Our house gets toilet papered every year, but I honestly don’t mind a bit,” said Kris Ploeger, a substitute teacher and former Pipestone Area School Board member. “It’s part of homecoming tradition and toilet paper is easy to clean up.”
This year, some community members believe the late-night activities during homecoming go beyond pranks into the realm of vandalism and in one case, hate speech.
Sara Priester said her daughter, Chloe, went to her vehicle one morning during homecoming week to find the word “nigger” written on it. Priester declined to comment further on the matter due to an ongoing investigation by the Pipestone County Sheriff’s Office.
Pipestone County Sheriff Keith Vreeman said Monday there was a suspect and charges were pending.
Other community members have reported that their houses were egged during homecoming week and said that, too, goes beyond harmless pranks.
“We were egged four times over three nights,” said Nancy Stiles, a teacher at PAS. “We have been egged in past homecoming situations, but never to this extent.”
Her husband, Mike Stiles, said that on two of the nights there were four or five eggs that hit their house or vehicles. Mike said he spent about seven hours cleaning the egg off. They said the egg discolored their house siding.
“We’re hoping that whoever is responsible is caught and that they have to pay for it,” Nancy said. “I think there should be definite consequences for those involved.”
In addition to the damage of property and hours spent cleaning up, Mike said the events robbed them of sleep.
“It was terrible to wonder if there’s going to be eggs thrown at the house tonight,” Nancy said.
The Stiles said they reported the eggings to the sheriff’s office each time and officers came to their home and increased patrol in the area. They said officers also set up a trail camera around the Stiles’ yard and while Stiles said the cameras captured the images of the culprit, Vreeman could only confirm, due to the ongoing investigation, that a motion-activated camera was used.
Mike Stiles, who works at Coborn’s, said he was also able to find security video footage of students purchasing eggs at the store prior to their house being egged.
Vreeman said the sheriff’s office received two complaints –– only one of those from the Stiles –– about houses being egged and both cases were under investigation. His office did not receive any reports of toilet papering, but Vreeman said there were five cases in which deputies saw kids with toilet paper or stopped cars for suspicious activity and confiscated toilet paper.
The Stiles said they believe throwing eggs at a house is “malicious” and that the students who did it are likely teenagers who should know better. They hope raising awareness of the fact that there is more than just late-night toilet papering happening during homecoming week will help put a stop to the more serious offenses.
Vreeman said that when the late-night activities go beyond toilet papering to property damage and racial slurs, “that’s going to wreck it for everybody,” and will require his office to take further action to stop such behavior.
He said his office already has increased patrol during homecoming weeknights to look for suspicious activity and enforce curfew. Curfew is at 10:30 p.m. for kids under 16 and midnight for kids ages 16-18.
He said parents can also help prevent such activities by making sure their kids aren’t leaving the house with things like eggs and toilet paper.