by Margot Ross ’24
April 2024
On January 9, 2024, USN seniors returned from their winter breaks excited about the prospect of engaging in a recently contested tradition: the senior class Nerf War. However, given recent instances of gun violence in the Nashville community and potential problems with safety, senior leaders were asked to reinvent the tradition. Now, a battle waged with water balloons has replaced the Nerf War tradition.
In the spring of 2023, recently appointed Head of School Amani Reed and Head of High School Quinton Walker began to rethink the tradition of the Nerf War. Though Peabody Press reporters asked Walker and Reed for comment regarding the situation at the time, the two were unavailable. However, reporters were still able to gain insight into their thought processes through speaking with faculty.
“There’s the big picture and then there’s the small picture,” senior Class Dean Matthew Haber stated in a 2023 interview.
“Big picture, I think the world kind of changed around us. I think the particular timing of the Nerf War [this year], when there were a couple of mass shootings in California, prompted some conversation and maybe changed the way people thought about it.”
The concerns about the optics of the Nerf War were only amplified by parents who voiced their anxieties about the safety of the event.
“What [ultimately] generated the conversation among administrators was parents and faculty members reaching out to the high school administration saying that they had real concerns about it,” Haber said. “One thing that I think a parent brought to light was that they had seen a senior hiding in their bushes very late at night. They were concerned, and in their neighborhood, that could go wrong very fast.”
Though the Nerf War bylaws, titled the “Nerf War Constitution,” did attempt to regulate the means by which seniors achieved kills—by, for instance, specifically barring them from “bringing a Nerf gun to school,” “[killing] anyone on campus at ANY time,” or “[breaking] into one’s work, car, or home” —faculty and staff still experienced disruptions and found some other bylaws problematic.
For instance, one bylaw in the Nerf War regulations stipulated that students would have immunity if they were “wearing ONLY undergarments.” This meant that students sometimes felt compelled to remove items of clothing, even if they were in a public place.
“There were a lot of complications with the rules last year, and there were people lurking at night in neighborhoods that they shouldn’t be lurking at night and stripping down in public areas,” senior class council president Josie Whelan ‘24 explained.
Despite these concerns, the class of 2023 stood by the tradition at the time because of its importance in class bonding and the alleviation of stress. The Nerf War typically takes place in late March, a period in which many senior class members receive college decisions.
“I feel like at USN, we have so few traditions that this game is one of the things that it really brings our class together. When we talked to administration, they kind of made the argument that the game wasn’t inclusive, but we had well over 80% of our grade participating,” said former senior class president Austin Cason ‘23.
“It really brought our class together. Everyone’s talking to each other and coming together to, like, strategize and make plans outside of school,” Cason said. “As a school that typically doesn’t like tradition, the Nerf War is really important.”
Beyond concerns about safety and optics, another event shortly following the Peabody Press’ coverage cast more doubt on the Nerf War: on March 27, 2023, three students and three faculty members were killed during a shooting at the Covenant School, located in the Green Hills area.
“[Covenant] was when I was like, okay, yeah. That’s not right, and you can’t argue against that it’s wrong to play with guns after a school shooting—especially if it’s a school sponsored event,” Whelan said.
All of these concerns culminated in Walker’s decision to rethink the Nerf War. Early in the spring semester, he met with the senior class council to brainstorm alternatives to the Nerf War tradition. Initially, seniors proposed a Nerf War game with modified rules.
“I just encouraged them to think about what possibilities could be, and what the aims and purposes of the tradition were,” Walker said. “I don’t know that there was a super strong appetite to really consider other things at the time. But based on what’s going on now, it feels like people kind of took some things, evolved them, and worked to create something new-ish that, as best as I can tell, feels good.”
Brainstorming for the Nerf War alternative began when the senior class met for a “re-retreat” at Vanderbilt’s Commons Center on January 12. In a grade-wide meeting, seniors had the opportunity to pitch class bonding events for the second semester, including potential alternatives to the Nerf War.
Whelan explained the ideas that the student council considered before finally landing on a water balloon war. Seniors were eventually allowed to choose between a game involving water balloons and a game involving bandanas in a grade-wide vote.
“We just thought that the closest thing we could get to a Nerf War without playing with guns was with water balloons,” Whelan said.
After a water balloon war was chosen as the new competition, the senior class created a new set of rules and regulations for the game. The rules of the new competition shared many commonalities with the old Nerf War Constitution: the game still involved teams of three to four seniors; those who had Snapchat were required to provide their location to senior class members at all times; students were barred from attacking other students on campus, at their workplaces, or at their places of worship.
However, the rule granting students immunity after stripping was eliminated. In the new regulations, the two things that can grant a student immunity are presence at a location where killing is forbidden or protection with an umbrella.
Though the Nerf War was eliminated, participation in the water balloon war has been just as robust as it was with respect to the Nerf War in 2023. Per Whelan’s estimate, roughly 88 seniors—or 85% of the class—are participating in the game this year.
“I feel like everyone who’s playing is really into it. We made a bunch of rules, and I’ve been getting so many questions about the rules, which is great because people want to try and follow these rules and really play the game the right way,” Whelan said.
nce of traditions such as the Nerf War and the water balloon war.
“I think as an underclassmen you look at cool privileges that seniors had. Definitely something I looked forward to as a sophomore was the Nerf War. I think traditions like that are always something to look forward to during your senior year, and it’s sort of a way to celebrate the seniors,” Whelan said. “I’m sure now, all of us are finding out about schools, and that’s stressful. This [is] a good way to take your mind off things we have, like AP tests.”
Walker echoed the sentiment.
“There are all these kinds of theories on group formation. One of the key pieces of that is ritual. And [USN], to me, is a school that likes the students to have ownership over some rituals that are not adult orchestrated,” Walker said. “I like that these things can can help do that without the assistance of adults.”
The water balloon assassin game is currently in its third week of play, with 24 teams competing to earn the most points through kills.
