Senior Assassin: Killings of Innocence
If you walked into the SAS Cafeteria at any point in early April, it would’ve been impossible to miss the havoc caused by the game every senior was playing. For one week, Senior Assassin had taken over SAS.
What began as a simple senior game slowly took over school life. Students from the Class of 2026 downloaded Splash, received assigned targets, and carried water guns through hallways to try and survive as long as possible. At first, the rules were simple: eliminate your assigned target while, of course, avoiding elimination yourself, unless protected by your googles. However, within just a singular day, the structure of the competition began to break, and what started as an organized game quickly spiraled into chaos across our campus.
The first violation in the game’s rules came from the organizer, who reportedly allowed eliminated players back in “just for fun.” From there on, everything began to unravel. Conversations in the cafeteria were instantly interrupted by seniors sprinting between tables, water guns raised as they chased targets through crowded spaces. Expectedly (apologies to the SAS cleaners), the cafeteria floor was left absolutely drenched in water. At this point, the game included anyone in the way, students were sprayed despite not being part of the game, and even an SAS teacher was caught in the crossfire.
After everything came the Purge. The Purge was a brief period, around 30 mins, where the rules of the game were lifted. No amount of goggles, floaties, or even flippers could save you. It was every person for themselves. Players hid behind pillars, sprinted through crowded hallways, and appeared out of nowhere to ambush their targets. Water guns were fired constantly across campus with very little regard for who could be caught in the crossfire. Students who had nothing to do with the game found themselves completely soaked.
What began as a controlled game slowly evolved into a mess, literally. We had the freedom to play however we wanted. And because of that, the class of 2026 did not fail to disappoint in having the most fun possible in the span of just 1 week.
That freedom, however, is not universal.
Across parts of the US, Senior Assassin is no longer just an innocent game; instead, it has been treated as a public safety concern. In Connecticut, for example, police have issued repeated warnings with the game triggering many emergency responses. In one specific case, residents reported the sight of many teens hiding with what appeared to be firearms. After investigations, they then later realized these kids were just trying to play senior assassin. (CT Insider). Unlike the brightly colored Super Soakers associated with childhood, many modern waterguns are intentionally designed to resemble fake Glocks or riffles in aims of making the game feel more realistic. In a country already shaped by the fear of guns, it becomes easy for bystanders to mistake the game for something far more dangerous. Even when no actual danger is presented, the fear people in the US have is enough to escalate an innocent situation into something much deeper.
In more extreme cases, the consequences can become a lot more serious. An incident reported by People described the story of an 18-year-old student in Indiana who was charged with felony intimidation while playing Senior Assassin. What had happened was that a bystander called 911 because they had believed the student was armed with a real gun, triggering a full police investigation for an “active shooter” situation. Officers later realized that the “weapon” was simply a water gun. But by then, the situation had already escalated beyond the simplicity and purity of the game. Adrian Williams was treated as a possible active shooter, surrounded by questions and officers, and later even transported to the Porter County Jail with a felony intimidation charge. What had just begun as a harmless senior tradition ended up turning into legal consequences, which demonstrates how quickly the game spiraled into something far more serious. The fear surrounding these situations does not come out of nowhere. As realistic-looking water guns become more common, even harmless games can immediately trigger panic in places where this fear is sensitive.
What stands out in these cases was not how chaotic each instance became, but how much misinterpretation can ruin a game. The rules of the game are exact in the US and Singapore; the intention is harmless and celebratory in both. But the environment in which the game exists has changed the way it can be perceived and played. The United States experiences significantly higher rates of gun violence and school shootings than Singapore, making people far more likely to interpret suspicious behaviour, as simple as seeing toy guns, as a dangerous threat. In fact, gun violence is the cause of 8% of all deaths among Americans under the age of 20, which puts it far above other high-income countries. That’s exactly what has killed its innocence in these environments.
In environments where the sense of safety does not exist, a water gun is no longer seen as harmless. Running, hiding, waiting, simple actions that define the game, begin to resemble something far more serious. Those actions trigger caution instead of what should just be laughter, and fear instead of what should just be excitement.
Once that shift occurs, the game can no longer exist the same way. Students are not simply choosing not to play; they are being prevented from it because of the illusions that come from the risk in certain environments. The presence of fear, whether justified or not, will inevitably reshape how innocent actions are interpreted.
Innocence, in this sense, is not just about being naive. It is about living in an environment where playful actions are still be playful actions, rather than dangerous threats. At SAS, Senior Assassin can still be played as it is a harmless tradition because students, teachers, and the broader community understand it that way. Elsewhere, fear that has come from rising numbers of violence has changed those interpretations, turning what should be an innocent game into one that perpetuates public fear.