A part of me admires the ingenuity and dedication of this kid in pulling off a classic sports prank. Is a suspension really an appropriate punishment here? Is any punishment warranted?

A high school student who tricked football fans from a crosstown rival into holding up signs that together spelled out, "We Suck," was suspended for the prank, students said.

Kyle Garchar, a senior at Hilliard Davidson High School in suburban Columbus, said he spent about 20 hours over three days plotting the trick, which was captured on video and posted on the video-sharing Web site YouTube. He said he was inspired by a similar prank pulled by Yale students in 2004, when Harvard fans were duped into holding up cards with the same message.

At the end of the video, Garchar wryly thanks the 800 Hilliard Darby High School supporters who raised the cards at the start of the third quarter during last Friday's football game.

"It couldn't have been done without you," reads the closing frame of the video.

Garchar, 17, created a grid to plan how the message would be spelled out once fans in three sections held up either a black or white piece of construction paper.

Directions left on stadium seats instructed fans to check that the number listed on their papers matched their seat numbers. Darby supporters were told the message would read "Go Darby."

"It was tedious," Garchar said. "I didn't really think it was going to work."

There was a day, not many years past, when folks would have found this humorous and the kid would have become one of those school legends that is talked about for years to come. Faculty and administration would have been at least marginally approving of the show of school spirit that went into the prank.

Today we make it a matter for serious discipline.

What do you think -- is the punishment appropriate or not?

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