Water Wars is a well-known tradition at Freedom High School. It is a senior-created and senior-only event. The event involves running around and shooting other teams’ members with water guns. Teams will be made, trust will be lost, and friendship will be broken in this intense war. The combatants must follow a strict set of rules of play to establish some sort of order.

Rules:

1. Each team must have 8-10 members
2. Each team member has 2 lives
3. Pictures must be taken in order to prove a “kill”
4. No shooting at school, work, school sporting events, parties, at the beach, or in the parking lot
5. If two members from the same team shoot a player at the same time and place, it only counts as one kill

When rules are established, sometimes there can be disputes, but most participants have been content.

“The rules were very fair, but there should be more lives for just a month; at least four,” claimed Quenden James, Senior.

“Rules were an issue because more seemed to be created each day. Also, it’s an integrity-based game and many people have had problems with people denying to take a picture signifying they were hit,” stated Dean LaGattuta, Senior.

“The rules were fair, yes. Two lives sounded straight to me, cool-down period also sounded fine. From what I had heard, the rules weren’t being fairly enforced for everyone, but I’ve just heard stories about these instances, I haven’t actually witnessed them,” said Joshua Rivera, Senior.

“I don’t think the rules were fair at all. The rules created too much drama. This game was supposed to bring the senior class together, not tear it apart. I think there should have been unlimited lives. It would have been more of a fun and enjoyable game if each person can only get the same person out once, until they get out as many as they can. In that case, the game would be able to last a month without any problems,” exclaimed Jenny Dunn, Senior.

“The rules were somewhat fair,” affirmed Samvit Iyer, Senior.

While fun, a game like this can cause participants to be on edge or even paranoid.

“On my side of things it’s been great, but I’m very paranoid every time I come or leave home,” noted Claudia Rodriguez, Senior.

“I wasn’t paranoid; it’s all in good fun. But it’s supposed to be a fun, senior out-of-school activity to bring us together, but to me, it hasn’t worked that way this year,” claimed LaGattuta.

“This game is supposed to be friendly but hasn’t been at all,” exclaimed Sarah Sagrati, Senior.

“Overall, in my limited experience, since I got out the second day, Water Wars has been pretty fun. I feel pretty glad and lucky that Freedom does something like this,” said Rivera. He includes that, “Oh yes, playing made me very paranoid. I am currently attending weekly meetings with my psychologist to address my PTSD. My family members will be moving back in with me shortly, after I had a panic attack and squirted my brother in his sleep, thinking he was helping the enemy teams. My mental breakdowns are happening far less frequently than they did during Water Wars. I’m able to be outside for more than 5 minutes slowly, surely, life is starting to become light again.”

“As of now, I don’t enjoy it. It was fun in the beginning, but the rules are not fair since people aren’t following them,” said Natalie Barreto, Senior.

“The game was good, my team ‘Make America Wet Again’ killed it, but I would make a rule that you had to be out of your cars to get a kill,” stated Mitchel O’Brien, Senior.

“Playing was loads of fun, but gave me a little paranoia,” Iyer explained.

“It was a great addition to my senior year and was really fun. But it made me scared to walk out my door casually, you literally had to watch 24/7,” noted James.

With competition comes frustration, and some take it too seriously. Boundaries are pushed, and there are those who take the game a little too far. It’s all fun and games until someone’s car gets damaged.

“Recently, people did take it too far though, throwing eggs on people’s car. I mean it’s Water Wars, not ‘Egg Wars’,” claimed Rodriguez.

“People are taking it too far, people’s cars are getting ruined, including mine,” added Barreto.

With the all the potential mischief involved in Water Wars, it begs the question: how do the teachers feel towards this “war”?

“It’s great, it’s fun, it’s a nice activity, but it has absolutely no place in school. It’s a great senior-made event, but students need to know the difference between something that belongs on campus and something that doesn’t. I’m also a firm believer in pulling senior’s rights away if they can’t keep it off campus,” explained Cassandra Currier, Senior Class Sponsor at Freedom.

With the popularity of such an event, is there a possibility of the school sponsoring something similar?

“I don’t think so, the reason being someone always takes it too far. When Mrs. Morris was here we had people ask for things like water slides at field day, but for example at her old school students would put things like bleach in water balloons thinking it’s a joke, but it’s too much. There’s always someone around to ruin it for the rest of the students,” added Currier.