Bartlett High School prankster: 'It went way too far'

By any standard, Zach Konstanzer was a model high school student. But he went from role model to pariah in one short day, thanks to a combination of baby oil and vegetable oil.

Konstanzer is one of six Bartlett High School seniors ticketed by police and barred from any senior activities this week and Saturday's graduation ceremony after a school prank went awry Friday.

He was told to clean out his locker and not come back to school except to pick up his diploma, and prevented from participating in a sectional track meet, costing him a chance to earn an award for senior three-sport athletes.

"We can't walk (at graduation). We can't participate in any senior activities," Konstanzer said Sunday night. "It's almost like an expulsion, but we still get our diplomas."

All that for a prank Friday that left his high school's hallways and stairs covered in oil, resulting in injuries to a school custodian and three students. The custodian was taken to an urgent care center with a wrenched back, and the students went to the nurse's office with bruises, Principal Kevin Skinkis said.

The school's 2,700 students were kept in their first-period class for 2∈ hours so the floors could be scrubbed.

Besides Konstanzer, 18, of the 2200 Waterfall Lane in Hanover Park, police also issued citations for "dangerous acts prohibited" to Stephen C. Maggard, 18, of the 1300 block of Keenland Drive in Bartlett; Kyle M. Davis, 18, of the 1300 block of Branden Lane in Bartlett; and three 17-year-olds. All six were released on their signatures and given a June 8 court date in Rolling Meadows.

Konstanzer expressed deep remorse, and said he plans to write a note of apology to each of his teachers.

"It went way too far," he said. "We didn't mean for anybody to get hurt."

He said many more people were involved in the prank than the six who were held responsible.

"To be totally realistic, probably 30 people," he said.

So why did he do it?

"I wanted to do something funny," said Konstanzer, who also was on the football and swim teams. "(Hurting someone), that's totally not who I am, for anything like that to happen."

The prank was in the works since early last week when a group of students got together with the idea of doing "something that people will never forget," Konstanzer said.

The plan, he said, was to put the oil on a handrail "so people will freak out and not know what's on their hands."

But the oil fell to the floor then was spread by students walking through it, leading to numerous slips and falls.

Konstanzer said he heard the fallout over the school's public address system. Ten minutes later, the Bartlett Police officer assigned to the school confronted him.

"I told them right away it was me," Konstanzer said. "They basically gave us a bag and said, 'Go clean out your locker. That's the last time you'll ever see anyone in this building.'"

"Do I think it's a fair punishment?" Konstanzer asked. "No. For me to make one mistake ... it seems like all of my accomplishments are in the shadow of that one big mistake."

"I haven't been in trouble once. None of us had any disciplinary actions before," he added.

Konstanzer said police and school personnel were understanding and could have made things harder on him, even to the extent of leading him out of the school in handcuffs.

He said his parents are disappointed.

"They're understanding and they know what I'm going through, but it's hard," he said.

Some of his classmates have been less forgiving, suggesting the prank was not well thought out enough.

One Facebook page devoted to the incident is called, "Baby Oil: The #1 Killer of Bartlett High School." A post by Konstanzer left on that page last Friday at 4:52 p.m. reads, "thank you everyone who backed me up no regrets."

It promises to be a rough summer for Konstanzer, who said expects "hundreds of hours of community service" as punishment.

But he says he'll get to put his life on the right track when he begins college at Western Illinois University this fall.

• Staff Writer Ashok Selvam contributed to this report.

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<li><a href="/story/?id=382764">Senior prank injures janitor, three students at Barlett High School <span class="date">[5/22/10]</span></a></li>

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