Former Glenbard East senior convicted of crude prank

A former Glenbard East High School student was convicted Tuesday of mutilating three mice and a decapitated rat, then scattering the bodies throughout the building and scrawling an obscenity in one of the rodent's blood.

It may have been Myles L. Frost's idea of a senior prank, but a DuPage County judge wasn't amused.

"To say it's in bad taste would be an extraordinary understatement," said Associate Judge Robert Kleeman, who called the acts, "disgusting."

The judge placed the 19-year-old Glendale Heights man on two years' probation and ordered him to submit to a psychiatric evaluation after finding Frost guilty of criminal defacement and animal cruelty ­­- both misdemeanor charges. Authorities discovered the mutilated rodents May 10, 2007, in a bathroom, drinking fountain, vending machine and stairwell in the Lombard high school. In the bathroom, someone also had written an obscenity in what appeared to be the blood.

David Wolfe, the school's assistant principal for student services, testified Tuesday that he questioned Frost four days after the grisly discovery after identifying him as the possible culprit.

Initially, Wolfe said Frost denied involvement. Minutes later, the student's story changed.

"He thought it would be a senior prank and that people would get a laugh out of it," Wolfe said. "It was a pretty serious event at our school. There's been pranks, but never anything close to this.

"Personally and professionally, I was a bit sickened. I was concerned about the sanitation of the school and I also was concerned about the individual who would do something like this."

Frost also testified during his one-day trial. The teen said he buys frozen rodents in bulk to feed once thawed to his two pet boa constrictors, which range in size from 2 to 8 feet. Frost said he does not keep live mice and, through his attorney, denied being behind the crude crime.

In urging an acquittal on the animal cruelty charge, defense attorney Frank Fanella argued there wasn't any evidence the rodents were alive when mutilated.

But, if they were purchased frozen, prosecutor Andrew Grill asked, why was there blood present?

"He absolutely abused those animals and he is responsible for what happened at that school," Grill said.

Frost did not have a prior criminal history. Wolfe said the student was suspended for 10 days.

The crime was the second so-called prank to draw headlines within months at a suburban high school.

On Dec. 6, 2006, a 17-year-old Wheaton North High School student was charged with disorderly conduct for tainting salad dressing in the school cafeteria with his bodily fluids. That student later pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and was sentenced to 120 hours of public service, fined and ordered to continue with his counseling.