A few audience members at the Bangor Area High School graduation couldn't contain their giggles Thursday after a member of the Class of 2011 pulled a senior prank.

As part of the ceremony, graduating seniors who have earned scholarships for higher education are invited to stand up and be recognized for their efforts. Roughly 80 students of this year's class were so honored last week, a little less than a third of the graduates.

Listed between scholarship students Salvator Rosato and David Ruck was Ethan Rosenberry, the proud recipient of the Jack S. Hitte Award for Academic Excellence.



In fact, he won Jack S***.

No such award exists. Rosenberry, 18, made it up, mirroring the name after the crude term meaning "nothing." He had applied for need-based scholarships, but the organizations behind them found other students were needier, he said. When the guidance office provided seniors with forms for the graduation program, he had nothing to write in the scholarship entry. So he got creative.

The prank made it through the guidance office, was printed in hundreds of graduation programs and read aloud during the ceremony by Principal Robert Vlasaty. Some in the audience realized right away what had happened, but many in the crowd needed to have the joke pointed out to them, Rosenberry said.

Bangor Area High School sends off Class of 2011 14 Gallery: Bangor Area High School sends off Class of 2011

Heidi Muth, the class valedictorian, said she didn’t notice it during the ceremony but noticed a lot of her friends cracking up afterward. They had to show it to her in the program before she caught on.

Rosenberry, a self-described average student, plans to study political science at Slippery Rock University in the fall with minors in language and in theater.

Rosenberry wasn’t sure he had been caught until after the ceremony when he was told he would have to wait to speak with Vlasaty on Monday before he could get his diploma.

Rosenberry said Vlasaty did not approve of the joke, but that the administration took it in good humor. Rosenberry was not disciplined, and he now has his high school diploma.

Frank DeFelice, assistant superintendent, said Monday the district is investigating the prank, but would not comment further.

Rosenberry said the prank was a spur of the moment decision done as a light-hearted joke. He said he didn’t have any score to settle with the administration, and he isn’t bitter for not getting a scholarship.