Whitney Downard / The Meridian StarLamar students "rolled" the Gerber home Sunday evening on Eagle Pointe Drive in Northeast Meridian, posting about the prank on social media soon afterward. 

Some trees and homes in Lauderdale County have some extra decorations this time of year and more are on the way.

In celebration of homecoming events, many homes of high school students find themselves the target of “rolling,” or toilet paper-throwing, and other activities.

Many Facebook commenters on the Meridian Star page saw rolling as harmless fun, a tradition that friends and schools in the area shared. Others saw it as a nuisance and some school principals have asked residents to not hold the schools responsible. 

“Please don’t hold WLHS accountable for parents allowing their children to vandalize property homecoming week,” a tweet from the West Lauderdale High School account (@WestLauderdale1) said. “We DO NOT condone this action!”

Shane Rodgers, the principal of West Lauderdale High School, said people upset with the school had called him.

“We don’t condone it and we don’t think they should do it,” Rodgers said. “They should be home in bed… I think it just takes away from the fun of homecoming.”

Rodgers said some got rolled numerous times in the week leading up to homecoming, something the school didn’t control.

“School jurisdiction doesn’t go past the schoolhouse,” Rodgers said.

Russell Keene, the principal of Southeast Lauderdale High School, and Tim Moore, the principal of Northeast High School didn’t report as many concerned residents.

“It happens when they’re not in our supervision – they’re in their parents supervision,” Keene said, adding that Southeast would celebrate homecoming in October. “It’s not sponsored by the school or encouraged but it’s something that kids do… usually it’s good spirited fun.”

“We tell our students, ‘If they are out and doing something don’t do something you’d regret,’… that they should always bear in mind there’s a fine line between having fun and damaging property,” Moore said.

Northeast Lauderdale had its homecoming celebrations last week and Moore said he received only one or two calls asking for the pranksters to clean it up.

“And we have kids who go out and clean the yards up,” Moore said.

Both West Lauderdale and Lamar School have homecoming this week, with a culmination of activities on Friday. But for one Lamar School family, getting “rolled” the first day of the week was flattering. 

“The girls were flattered,” Don Gerber, who lives on Eagle Pointe Road in Northeast Meridian said about the toilet paper attack on his property. “Last year they didn’t want me to take it down.”

On Sunday, around 9:30 p.m., some friends of Gerber’s daughters flung toilet paper into the trees in the Gerber’s yard and mummified their mailbox. They rang the doorbell while Gerber tried to put his son to bed, startling the family.

“I thought someone was locked out of the house because of how frantic it was,” Gerber said. 

Gerber raked some of the toilet paper on the ground, so it wouldn’t disturb his neighbors or blow into their yards, and put it to the side for his daughters to reuse for their escapades.

Gerber has three children: one in high school, one in middle school and one in elementary school. The two oldest, both daughters, participate or have participated in their own rolling pranks.

The pranksters didn’t hide their identities. Mary Gerber, a 14-year-old in eighth grade at Lamar, pulled out Snapchat, a popular video messaging app. Her friend had posted a video of the rolling the night before and published it, temporarily, to her Snapchat story for all her friends to see. 

“It’s a homecoming week thing,” Gerber said. “Sometimes they’ll get creative and write things in the sidewalk with chalk.”

Gerber said he’d been rolled for the past two to three years, but never anything extreme. 

“That would be a line, damage to property,” Gerber said about activities such as throwing eggs at homes. “Everything I see is good-natured prank stuff.”

Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie agreed.

“If damage is done to the vehicles, (such as) egging or using a paint gun, that’s oftentimes crossing a line,” Sollie said. “Toilet tissue is biodegradable and it’s gone in four weeks if you can’t reach it.”

Sollie said no one had been formally charged for a homecoming prank in his memory and that, typically, parents and children can identify the pranksters and ask them to clean it up.

“Oftentimes it’s considered a badge of acceptance by some children,” Sollie said, adding that his subdivision in West Lauderdale’s school district had been hit.

Gerber’s daughter Mary said some kids wanted to get rolled. 

“It can be for a friend, it’s kind of like a joke,” Mary Gerber said. “I did it to a friend last year because she complained that she hadn’t been rolled.”

Her dad joked, “That someone cared enough to go to the store and buy the toilet paper is a badge of honor.”

“They’ll just come back if you take it down,” Mary Gerber said. “They’ll do it worse, with more toilet paper and shaving cream.”

Gerber expressed a few reservations when his daughters participated in the pranks, worrying that they might not be safe on the dark roadways when they’re sneaking around. Still, remembering the same memories he created as a child, he doesn’t see the harm.

“I don’t think anybody is having their feelings hurt,” Gerber said.