Parents outraged after school prank fallout

CLAYTON, Ind. - A senior prank at Cascade High School that resulted in dozens of suspended students and a terminated janitor outraged parents and prompted many of them to call for school administrators to resign.

Last month, Cascade seniors decorated the school with thousands of sticky notes after school hours.

Administrators reversed the suspensions, but some parents and students called for the superintendent and the high school principal to step down during a Mill Creek Community school board meeting Wednesday.

Grandparent Donna Watson came to the school board meeting with a mission.

“I said I wanted to discuss sticky notes. Did anyone say to me, ‘No, you can't?’ That is on the agenda," said Watson. “I think that it's important for (administrators) to understand that we run this corporation. They don't.”

Parents of some of the same students who decorated Cascade High School with more than 12,000 sticky notes said they've gathered hundreds of signatures from people who want to see Superintendent Patrick Spray terminated. Other parents said Principal Cathy Tooley's recommended punishments were also out of line.

Parent Robert Canaday said he doesn’t want his children exposed to unstable leadership at the school.

"The disruption to the school was tremendous. We have a school board that didn't consider it a crisis and that didn't engage. The lack of leadership isn't only with the principal, but goes all the way up to the school board, as well," Canaday said. "I have a senior and a freshman that will be in that school next year. To put them in an environment where there's a lack of leadership, where there's a lack of camaraderie, or just a relationship that the principal fosters with the students, is unacceptable."

Administrators reversed the suspensions and reinstated position of the janitor who had lost her job after supervising the prank, but some parents still weren’t satisfied.

“She was reinstated at another school,and she was told it was going to go on her permanent record. That's not acceptable," one parent said.

The Mill Creek superintendent and the school board president declined a request for an interview from our Scripps station in Indianapolis.