For a few weeks at the end of each year, the senior class can be seen walking around campus toting water guns, floaties, and goggles. This is all part of the fun in a traditional game known as Senior Assassin.
Senior Assassin is a game run by anonymous people who are not part of RHS ASB. Seniors can join by paying $5 as an entry fee. In each round of the game, every player is randomly assigned a “target.” Players can eliminate their targets by squirting them with a water gun, unless they happen to be wearing goggles and floaties. The only times these items do not protect players are on “Purge Days.” Players can also be eliminated by failing to get their own target out in a certain amount of time.
Additionally, players can only be eliminated at certain places. Players cannot be eliminated inside work, church, or on campus, but they can be eliminated while entering or exiting these places. Everywhere else, including the school parking lot, outside a target’s house, or even inside a target’s house if given permission by someone who lives there, is free game. Players may even enter their target’s car if it is unlocked.
Overall, the objective of the game is to stay alive as long as possible. Eventually, only one player will be left in the game and will win a large cash prize.
I definitely checked my front yard this morning three times just to make sure he wasn’t standing in the bushes or anything…”
Kaitlin Dunn, Senior
After a player finds out their target’s name, the first step is to find out their identity and whereabouts. Senior Kaitlin Dunn, who is participating in the game this year, said, “Instagram is a big help if you don’t know who your person is. Some people have Snapchat, and their locations are on. So that’s been a big help for a lot of people too.”
In this digital age, it is even easy for people to find out addresses. Dunn said, “If you look up their parent’s name, then you can look them up on Google and [their address will] pop up automatically. It’s crazy how easy it is to find addresses.”
Of course, it is not what you know but who you know that also helps. Senior Taylor Luiz, another participant of the game this year, said, “I had a friend whose cousin was neighbors with [my target.] They were telling me that he leaves super early in the morning, so I just went outside of his house and hid next to his garage for an hour in the morning until he left. I got him as he was walking out because he didn’t have goggles or floaties on.”
Waking up early in the hopes of ambushing a target when they leave their house is a common strategy for assassins. Dunn said, “I was in front of my target’s house from 5:30 to 8:30 a couple of weeks ago. [Then his friends] pulled up in front of his house and saw me and I know his friends because I’m neighbors with one of them.”
While Dunn may not have been able to get her target out, she is not the only one who had trouble eliminating their target. Her own assassin attempted to get her out as well. Dunn said, “He tried to get me a couple of days ago and then my mom accidentally gave it away. He was hiding in our front yard. I had my goggles on luckily, but he ran away really fast.”
One of the rules of Senior Assassin is that players must get a video of themselves assassinating their target. The videos are posted on an Instagram page that runs the event, along with rules of the game and notices for Purge Days. This allows everyone to enjoy the videos of players assassinating their targets.
Luiz said, “I noticed one [girl’s] video on Instagram. She got permission from a resident to go into somebody’s house, and she was looking around for the person. But the person’s parent set them up so that the girl’s target got her out. If someone’s going after you, you can shoot [them] with a water gun and get them out as well, even if they’re not your target.”
Despite managing to eliminate a target, Luiz herself was eliminated before managing to get out her new target. Luiz said, “I lost my goggles yesterday and then I was out in the parking lot. My assassin came up and got me and I was not expecting it. I thought someone else was my assassin.”
Allies are also a big part of Senior Assassin. Senior Tori Gridley is participating in the game this year as well. Gridley said, “This past round was when I helped one of my friends get out her target. [Her target] had me. I baited him into thinking, ‘Oh, I can get Tori right now.’ But then it was actually her waiting for him. And so she got him out.”
Strategy is what makes Senior Assassin fun, as everyone picks different ways of playing the game. Some people choose to be more bold or cautious than others, adopting new precautions. For example, having parents or friends drop you off rather than driving yourself, not giving away who your target is, and being careful when speaking about any weekend plans you have are all measures people take to protect themselves.
“I just make sure I’m aware of my surroundings and look behind me at all times. Especially when I’m driving to make sure nobody’s following me anywhere. I definitely checked my front yard this morning three times just to make sure he wasn’t standing in the bushes or anything because he did that the other day,” Dunn said.
On Purge Days especially, the stakes are higher. Luiz personally prefers to be cautious on Purge Days. Luiz said, “So the last Purge Day that I was a part of was on a weekend day. I didn’t have anything else to do that day, except go down to the gym that I climb at in Sacramento. So no one was really following me down 30 minutes to go to my climbing gym. So I was able to go to my climbing gym and I just didn’t really leave the house for anything else that day.”
However, while Luiz sees Purge Days as a time to be cautious, some see them as the best time to get people out. Gridley said, “One guy went all the way to Folsom Lake as well to get his target out on a Purge Day.”
No matter how fun and competitive Senior Assassin can be, some people claim that it can be dangerous because people can mistake the student’s gun for a real gun. This can end up with the police getting involved. For instance, at Reading Memorial High School in Massachusetts, the principal reported one instance where a student was reported as walking around in a parking lot with a gun. Multiple police cars showed up to the scene, but all the student was holding was a water gun.
Luiz disagrees with the idea that Senior Assassin might be dangerous. “I don’t think that it’s considered dangerous because part of the rules are if you get the cops involved at all, you’re out. Also, another rule is that the water guns have to look very [much] like a water gun,” Luiz said.
Dunn also believes that the game is not dangerous. “I think there’s a right time in the right place or there’s a wrong time in a wrong place [where] you probably shouldn’t be trying to get the person out. You probably don’t want to do it around any law enforcement just because most of the people outside of school don’t know what’s happening,” Dunn said.
All three seniors hope that Senior Assassin will continue at RHS in the future. However, no matter whether Senior Assassin continues in the future, it will be a memory that those who have participated can enjoy looking back on.
