Students at St Mary's College in Rathmines, Dublin got more than they bargained for when an end-of-the-year prank went wildly out of control this week.

A group of boys who were mid-prank were spotted and assumed to be committing a kidnapping. Local police were called in, resulting in the scrambling of one helicopter and the crashing of one cop car.

The Irish Independent
reports on the prank gone awry in Rathmines. Students at St. Mary’s College, one of Dublin’s top rugby schools, reportedly stripped a fellow student to his underpants, covered him in shaving cream and drove him to nearby Donnybrook. There he was tied him to a pole in the grounds of the all-girls Muckross Park School.

A passerby saw the boy being smuggled into a car and assumed the incident was a kidnapping, thus alerting authorities. Gardai, including a helicopter and a squad of cars, then followed in pursuit to find the student bound in duct-tape on the grounds of the all-girls school.

The teachers at the school dressed the student and then released him. The perpetrators of the incident were later arrested by gardai, though no further punishment is known at this time.

Though the school principal declined comment at the time, St. Mary’s College officials are said to be “horrified” by the incidents of this week, which is just one of several recent pranks in the lead up to the Leaving Cert.

Several other schools have experienced pranks in recent days, though none as serious as the one at St. Mary’s College. Three students were expelled and graduation was cancelled at High School in Rathgar after an unofficial dance music event in the school led to what were described as "exchanges" between students and staff.

High School has since instructed all sixth-year pupils that their school year has ended and they can only return to the school by appointment.

At Oatlands College in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, four fifth-year students - one of which is the son of a serving TD - were finally expelled for the "vile sexual allegations" posted on Facebook about both male and female teachers at the school .