Senior year at Hingham High School is something most students look eagerly forward to; senior privilege, close lot, and graduation. But perhaps one of the most exciting times of the year is the very end, not just for officially ending their high school career, but for something entirely different. Senior Assassin, a time of betrayal, espionage, and sacrifice. It is the era seniors spend their days plotting for as their high school calendar slowly comes to a close, and the time juniors, sophomores, and freshmen check the updated Instagram frequently for news of more treason. It is a time of sleeping with one eye open, parking in your garage, and having an umbrella on you at all times. Friends can’t be trusted, enemies become allies, and neighbors report daily on mysterious figures hiding in your bushes. Stores are raided of their colorful water guns, civilians wonder why high schools are running full speed through the woods, and most importantly, nowhere is safe. 

The games officially began on April 24 when students received their first target the night before. Many bided their time, slowly gathering intel on their first victims, but some decided immediate execution was the better tactic. On that first day, 24 seniors were eliminated. Similar kills were performed throughout the next week, everyone eager to move on to the next round. The catch was that if you didn’t hit your person with water by the end of the school week on that Friday, you were also eliminated. There are many rules established to keep the games fair, safe, and fun, and those include the following:

1. All participants will use water guns.
2. You are not allowed to get someone out 15 minutes before and after school.
3. You may not get anyone out on school grounds.
4. You may not get someone out at any sporting event home/away including transportation.
5. You may not get someone out at their place of work if they are actively working.
6. You should not tell others who you have.
7. If someone is about to get you out but you shoot them with a water gun first you get a 15-minute period where the other person cannot get you.
8. If you get out in the first round you do not move on to the next round which will start Monday, May 1st (the same goes for next week).
9. If you do not get your target out in the first week then you d knot move on to the next round.
10. If you get your person out then please take a picture with them for proof. 
11. Each “round” (week) of the game will end on Friday at 7 pm. The game will be paused from that Friday until the following Monday morning. You can not get your target out in that time period. If you have advanced then you will receive your next target on the Sunday before the next round.
12. Have fun!!

The games have slowly begun to die down as the senior’s numbers have dwindled due to many eliminations over the month. This is not only a fun game in the moment, but something many will remember as a part of the end of their senior year. The experience is one of the best parts. Over the last week,  senior Sophie Morrissey was interviewed on how her senior assassination attempts and experience have been so far.

Student Experiences: 

Sophie Morrissey: Senior Assassin is a long-standing tradition that twelfth graders across the nation participate in. Even as a middle schooler, I remember refreshing the Instagram page with my older sister to see the new posts and strategies people pursued in order to “kill” their target. At the beginning of my senior year, the annual game of senior assassin was near the top of my list of senior activities I was ecstatic to participate in. Although I was knocked out on the second day of the game- the use of social media as an outlet of the game has allowed me and others to maintain the feeling that even if you aren’t an assassin anymore you are still a part of the game. Furthermore, I have seen firsthand how the game where classmates stalk one another- has unified our grades. I find myself talking to many of my classmates about the lengths that participants in the game will go to in order to remain a player. Whether it is following their cars after practices, or climbing on the roof of someone’s home- the possibilities are endless.  My experience as a senior assassin has revealed to me why there are so many sports fanatics in our country. Every day, I look forward to seeing the game progress, watching my friends become CIA agents for a day, or the shock when my favorite player is eliminated. There are even times when the referees of the game conduct “investigations” on suspicious kills. Overall, the tradition of Senior Assassin unifies the school under one intense and hilarious game and was a fantastic way to end my senior year.