Sartell High School tries to cancel nerf wars for juniors and seniors every year. 

Nerf Wars is a game played by juniors and seniors towards the end of the school year. The goal of the game is to be the last team/person standing and win the money. The key to the game is to ambush your friends and fellow classmates. 

Let’s talk about the same email Sartell sends out to are parents every. single. year. The school talks about them becoming aware blah blah blah, students driving around, trespassing, and car accidents. It’s the same email every year. One other thing they briefly touched on is the two students that died in a car accident playing Nerf Wars in 2015. Let me tell you about the accident since the SHS doesn’t care to give details. 

Bring Me the News wrote an article about Nerf wars’ history. On Dec 4, 2015, Lakeville South High School students John Price IV, 18 and two other students were participating in a “kidnapping” of Jacob Flynn, 17, while playing Nerf Wars. The person driving was a former graduate of Lakeville. The driver of the truck crashed after crossing the centerline and ended up in a ditch. I know we can all agree that this accident is really sad. We can all agree that it could have been avoided and those students shouldn’t have passed away. Nerf Wars were the cause of that tragic accident, but this can be completely avoided today. In researching Nerf Wars, I spoke with people that graduated last year or even played last year and there was no “kidnapping” of their friends.

It’s great that the school wants to inform us about the students that died but not giving details on how it happened is not going to help the students make good decisions and understand what caused this tragic accident to happen that day. 

2022 Nerf Wars rules have been set and people are aware of them. One of the big rules is all cars are off-limits when in motion. You can’t hit a car while at a stoplight.  You can only hit them if they are parked in a parking lot. Another rule is that you can’t enter people’s homes or private property without their parent’s permission. Work, church, and sports are all off-limits until you are leaving. Any disruption of a business will cause the team to be eliminated. All school grounds are also off-limits obviously since the game isn’t affiliated with the school district. The game rules are made to make sure the game is safe as possible, and they change every year to ensure that. 

Nerf Wars is not affiliated with the Sartell School district in any way. In my opinion, I believe that the only reason the school makes it such a big deal that we don’t play is that they don’t want a lawsuit for anything that could go wrong (which nothing would with the rules that are put in place).  

Sartell, it’s a game. A simple game with fake guns and foam bullets.