By Sheila McLaughlin and Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MASON - Two Mason High School students, including a star football player, were charged with misdemeanor theft and animal cruelty Thursday, two days after a senior prank got out of hand.

Former running back Vincent Eric Dean, 18, and Chad Scheben, 19, both Mason seniors, were summoned to appear next Tuesday in municipal court for what authorities said was their involvement in the theft from a Deerfield Township farm that left a rabbit and a peacock dead.

Some of the stolen animals and birds were turned loose in the school Tuesday morning, the seniors' last day of school.

At least three other students are under investigation and could be charged in the theft, Warren County sheriff's officials said.

Now, instead of enjoying graduation, some Mason High students are waiting to learn whether about 10 of them will be banned from Saturday ceremonies at Cintas Center.

What was supposed to be a benchmark in their young lives and a time for celebration has turned into a chaotic week filled with anxiety.

"Some people think it's funny. But other people, like me, think it went too far," said 17-year-old Sandy Youngmeyer, who did not participate in the prank.

The Branham family said their week has been nightmarish. And, not just because their Snidercrest Drive hobby farm and animals - peacocks, rabbits and a kitten - were targeted by the thieves, or because two of their animals were killed.

Their daughter, Jaime, a senior, was wrongly accused in the thefts. She spent hours in a school administrator's office Tuesday being grilled, instead of saying her final goodbyes to friends and teachers, her mother said.

"The big thing is I can never give my kid back that last day," Jacquie Branham said. Jaime is apprehensive about facing the rest of her class today at graduation practice, "when everybody else is out having a good time," her mother said.

Although there have been no other reports locally of pranks that crossed the line into criminal offenses, outlandish acts by soon-to-be graduates are common everywhere.

Last June, a group of California seniors decided to put San Lorenzo Valley High School up for auction on eBay. The listing stayed up for two days before company officials discovered the joke.

School officials almost expect outgoing seniors to do something goofy during their final school days. It becomes a problem when the acts turn criminal.

"In the past, it seemed to be general silliness," said Shelly Benesh Hausman, Mason Schools spokeswoman. "This is one of the more destructive pranks we've had."

One of the Branhams' rabbits was found dead in a cage in the family's shed; one of two stolen peacocks died after being found in a car at the school parking lot wrapped in a blanket, dripping wet, with its legs bound. The second peacock is still missing, but a rabbit and the family's kitten were found in neighbors' yards, as was a chicken in a cage. Although chickens also were released at the school, police don't know where they came from.

"I don't know what to think right now," Jacquie Branham said. "I was very disappointed that someone would come in and be so disrespectful with the animals."

In 2001, a prank at Badin High School involved more than a dozen students smearing hog manure on the driveway, doors and light fixtures at the Hamilton school. Several students were arrested on misdemeanor charges for criminal damages.

Within a week of that incident, Indian Hill schools were shut down after tires on 26 of the district's 33 buses were deflated. Vandals left graffiti on the walkways and put a sticky substance in the door locks.

And in 1998, 11 Fairfield High students were suspended from school and criminally charged after they allegedly removed a 700-pound fiberglass elephant and two larger-than-life snails from neighboring Jungle Jim's Market.Charges were dropped for students who performed eight days of community service.

The pranks seem to go in cycles, said Sycamore Community Schools assistant superintendent Chuck Mason. Just a few years ago, when he was the high school principal, students left a pregnant goat in the school.

"For several years, you won't have anything," said Mason, who also is a former Mason High principal. "It can go for a long time, and you think you don't have a problem. Then, one year, the right bunch of kids get together on the right night and something happens."

Other Mason students weren't amused by the latest incident.

Junior Amanda Weise called Tuesday's prank disrespectful and said the acts of a few reflect poorly on the entire school.

"This is not what we're like at all," said Weise, who is next year's student body president. "Leaving a senior legacy should be something great, not, 'Hey we did a really dumb senior prank.' "

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com and esolvig@enquirer.com