After successfully rallying over 100 senior participants and completing multiple rounds of competition, the 2025 Senior Splashin event was officially cancelled on April 13, for the second year in a row. As seniors prepare to graduate, they reflect on one of the traditions graduating classes anticipate during high school.

Senior Splashin is an alternative/extension of the Senior Assassin tradition, where seniors are assigned a target that they must eliminate outside of school by shooting the person with a water gun or Nerf gun. The newer “splashin” event is intended only for water guns, and has an app to help track eliminations and add special advantages, such as wearing pool floaties or goggles for immunity.

Behind the event’s organization this year were Luke Ewert and Lukas Brown, both seniors. To participate in the event, seniors sent a $5 entry fee to Brown through Venmo.

“I just told my friends that I would run it because I thought it’d be super fun to do it. I didn’t realize how big it was gonna get,” Brown said. “I got myself into a bigger thing than I thought. Honestly, I thought I was just gonna do it with maybe 80 people or whatever, and then it got bigger and bigger.”

Once the first round began, a total of 138 seniors were assigned targets. The entry fees were intended to go towards cash prizes for the top three winners, who would’ve been the last standing in the competition. Now, with the event cancelled, the prize money has no winners to go to, but Brown and Ewert plan to use it to gift teachers with coffee and donuts.

Last year’s version of the game, named Senior Assassin, faced backlash due to the violent nature of the title and students chasing each other with Nerf guns, causing disruptions in public spaces. While the branding of this year’s event was able to avoid similar scrutiny, it was still shut down ultimately due to safety concerns.

Being in charge of the event, Brown was made aware of the details of the situation, involving Ryan Whitley, senior, attempting to eliminate his target, Nyamma Nelson, senior.

“[Nelson] was in the backseat in the Burgerville drive-through, and he came around on the front when they were at the window getting their food, and somebody was [recording], he was loading his gun. He ran up with this water gun— it had an orange stripe on the top of the gun, and the rest was black,” Brown said.

To avoid concerns from community members, it was stated in the event rules that water guns or Nerf guns needed to be brightly colored to avoid looking like real weapons. The West Linn Police Department soon arrived on the scene.

“[Whitley] got brought back to the school, and [Officer Johnson] told them not to charge him, and he didn’t get charged or anything. But then the police said we were [going to] have to shut it down,” Brown said. “At that point, it’s really not worth it.”

Following the cancellation, various seniors who were both participants and just viewers expressed disappointment in the cut-off end of the game. Lauren Kamali, senior, has anticipated the tradition for years.

“I’ve been excited for it since middle school,” Kamali said. “I’d see the TikToks of people wearing floaties out in public and stuff. I was really excited for it, and [after] seeing it last year I was just really hoping that someone wouldn’t ruin it for us. I still had a lot of fun.” 

Brooklyn Schiele, senior, also took part in the tradition and got her target out in the first round.

“I never got out, [and] I was the second or third person to get somebody out. [It was] super exhilarating. [I] had a great time,” Schiele said. “I kind of figured [Senior Splashin] wasn’t gonna happen this year, just because it was canceled last year. I was like, ‘Oh, there’s no way they’re gonna let us do it again,’ but I’m happy they did.” 

Next year’s seniors will have to either find a new, more regulated way to play the game or scrap the tradition entirely. Ewert expressed the difficulties he had with rules this year and how the class of 2026 may hope to address them if they run their own version of the game.

“If you hear or find out that people are breaking the rules, you need to just get rid of them for the game. If you have 138 people and you get five people out for doing bad stuff, that’s only five people, and you can keep the game going,” Ewert said. “Our goal was just to do whatever we could to keep the game going. I’d say [for next year], just be more strict on the rules, and make sure you have all your rules set before the game starts.”