Daily Herald editorial: Stakes are far too high for teens participating in Senior Assassins game

It may be a “game,” but Senior Assassins has all the makings of a tragedy in waiting.

High school seniors put money in a pot and then set out to “eliminate” their targets, typically using water or paintball guns. Because the game can’t be played on school grounds, “attacks” unfold elsewhere, both in public places and on private property.

The winner claims the cash.

But as a couple of recent close calls illustrate, the stakes are simply too high when the game is often played with masks, hiding spots and water guns that look far too close to the real thing.

Last week, masked teens entered a Gurnee restaurant carrying what appeared to be weapons. Naturally assuming the worst, a customer with a concealed carry permit pulled out a gun. Fortunately, a restaurant worker spoke up, explaining that the “gunmen” were high school students playing a game — and their “guns” were armed with water.

A crisis was averted. But if the armed diner had pulled the trigger to protect other patrons, the families of those masked teens could be planning funerals instead of their futures.

Likewise for the parents of teens involved in a recent Itasca car crash. Police there shared photos on social media Thursday of an overturned car, the result of teen drivers chasing their targets. No one was hurt — this time.

As Charles Keeshan and Susan Sarkauskas explained in Friday’s Cops & Crime column, Senior Assassins is popular at this time of year, as seniors approach high school graduation. The annual game poses a national challenge for police officers who have to assume that every call about armed teens is real and respond accordingly.

But each alarm-filled report, and each worried bystander, sets the stage for a potentially tragic turn of events. Recent examples include:

• Arlington Heights police responded to two reports of people running through neighborhoods with guns.

• In St. Charles, police set out after a report of three teens hiding behind a car with suspected firearms.

• And in a Geneva-area Facebook forum, a woman said her husband was frightened to find a teen hiding inside a garbage toter waiting for a target.

The list goes on.

“The gravity of the situation cannot be emphasized enough,” said Gurnee police in a news release last week.

The game itself is not illegal, police point out. But how it’s played could be.

And the consequences can be dire: Players who act like assassins can all too easily be mistaken for one, especially in an era when mass shootings have become all too common.

We join with local police departments in urging parents to talk to their kids about the risks of the game. There are no winners when playing puts teens — and bystanders — in harm’s way.