If you could get ONLY one of these questions answered, which one of these questions would you choose?

From driving cars into the school to painting the portables, seniors have thought of every kind of prank imaginable; however, of these, very few pranks have been executed at WJ. Students are hard-pressed to mention a good prank they remember.

“Unfortunately, nothing comes to mind but last year’s Portable City For Sale signs,” said senior Connor Whitaker. To most students, this was an uncontroversial and disappointing prank.

Although students didn’t seem to recall any legendary pranks, Principal Christopher Garran can remember one or two.

“I do remember one where the senior got into the PA room and locked the door and played music from a porno movie along with some of the audio, over the PA, to the entire school,” said Garran. “Then I believe he had to do a handwritten apology to every staff member in order to graduate.” Most students have never heard of the infamous PA prank, but it appears to be the most exciting prank that has happened at WJ within the last decade.

“To be honest, it was funny, but you couldn’t really hear [the audio] all that well, which was probably better,” said Garran.

By the time seniors get to second semester, they are usually focused on everything but senior pranks. “They’re graduating and they’ve got Beach Week, so during the year they might think of a prank, but the idea isn’t as appealing when they get to the end,” said Garran.

Although no legendary pranks have occurred at WJ so far, who knows what the seniors have in store for us in the future?

Can Open Lunch Ever Close?

 At the end of WJ’s lunch period it’s easy to see the excessive amounts of trash strewn about the halls. Imagine if open lunch was to be taken away. Now instead of the gobs of trash lying around, there would be gobs of underclassmen stuffed like sardines in the cafeteria. Scary, right?

  Building service worker Glen Stevens is one of the many whose job it is to clean up after the students who carelessly leave trash on the ground.

  “I see all the food that [the students] waste and that they just throw on the ground and in the hallways,” said Stevens. “The students we had last year, they should know better. There’s no excuse.”

While the announcements made by Principal Christopher Garran over the P.A. system are to address the school as a whole, the messages are intended to be directed at certain students and not to punish the entire school for the garbage left behind.

  “I’m a big fan of open lunch,” said Garran. “I think it’s a great aspect of this school. But in no way, shape or form am I talking about taking open lunch away from WJ. But I will take it away from individual kids who can’t respect the rules during open lunch.”

According to Garran, consequences such as “campusing” these students, that is, confining them to the cafeteria during lunch, would result if they continuously neglect their trash.

“[Students would be punished] the third time they were caught [leaving trash]; three strikes and you’re out of open lunch,” he said.

Students like senior Michael Hsu are also frustrated by the trash in the halls.

   “Freshmen- clean up your messes,” he said. “Or I will get angry. You won’t like me when I’m angry. I’d be like The Incredible Hulk, except I’d have a more grammatically correct catchphrase than, ‘Hulk smash.’ More like, ‘The colossal anthropoid annihilates (you).’  And I would enforce Dr. Garran’s policies to the letter. So clean up.”

While the chances of closing open lunch for the whole school aren’t very probable, the security cameras are watching at all times to catch each lazy kid who decides they’re above picking up an apple core or a couple dozen raisins that have been chucked down the halls at innocent freshmen.

 Where Does the Money from Parking Permits Go?

  Come their senior year, most seniors at WJ jump at the chance to get a parking permit in the coveted space that is the student parking lot. With modernization tearing away at the few available spots, students usually don’t think twice about the $37.50 they have to pay per semester just to park their mom’s minivan.

  Post-permit rush, however, students are left wondering where the $5,699 from 152 seniors happens to go.

  Financial Assistant Mary Shull has seen the money flow in the same direction for the past seven years that she’s been at WJ.

  “That money goes into an athletic account,” said Shull. “And that’s also mandated by the school system, not Walter Johnson.”

Regulation ECG-RA, under control by the Deputy Superintendent of Schools, determines how the money for parking permits is spent.

WJ’s modernization hasn’t diverted the money from athletics. However, senior Alex Jeszeck thinks that the money should go elsewhere.

“The money should go to [different] stuff for students,” said Jeszeck. “Maybe moving along the construction or just cool stuff for students since they are the ones who have to pay. [Since] not all students do sports, maybe to clubs or theater.”

  There was a time, when the price of parking permits was just $25 a semester.

  According to MCPS director of the Department of Management, Budget and Planning, Marshall C. Spatz, the parking fee was raised from $25 a semester to $37.50 a semester by the Board of Education to support JV lacrosse.

  The next time you sleepily pull up crooked in your parking spot at 7:12 in the morning, you can rest assured that your permit money is being well spent. Just so long as JV lacrosse wins.

What is the Story Behind the Mascots?

WJ is unique in that it has more mascots than most schools in the country. Although the Spartans, the Wildcat and Mighty Moo are highly celebrated around the school, not everyone seems to remember the same story of the three historical mascots.

“I thought we were the Spartans because the whole 300 thing caught on, said junior Daryl Oh. “I don’t know if there’s a specific story.”

Principal Christopher Garran had a different story to tell.

“Walter Johnson High School had been the Spartans since it opened. We were the Spartans from up into the 80’s but then became the Wildcats, coming from Woodward, from the merging of two schools.”

The story behind the origin of Mighty Moo is the most disputed story of all of WJ’s mascots.

“Mighty Moo became the official WJ mascot in 1963. That year, the seniors painted a cow on the WJ chimney. Thirty-five years later, over the summer, the whole school was repainted and the painters covered the cow with white paint,” says the WJ website. Despite being painted over, Mighty Moo has in no way lost popularity among students. There is now a permanent picture of a cow on the chimney.

The legend of a senior class walking a cow up on the roof of WJ as a senior prank is a known hypothesis of the origin of Mighty Moo around the school. Legend has it that the senior class walked the cow up the stairs but was unable to walk it down. The senior class then had to use their prom money to hire a crane to remove the cow from the roof.

“That rumor is a myth around schools around the county,” said Garran. “So honestly, I doubt that it happened, but I’m not 100 percent sure.”