
Eva Ludwig
Senior Assassin is a nationwide game where high school students pair up to eliminate each other using water guns. Participating students are safe from the water guns if they wear swim gear, which acts as a shield. At Aragon, Senior Assassin is immensely popular among students, though the game brings various concerns.
Recurring ideas of safety concerns, as well as privacy concerns, bring up conversations about whether this game is worth playing.
It is also important to note that there are designated days when safety gear does not protect students from being eliminated: purge days. In simple terms, everywhere and everyone is fair game, which poses many concerns.
“[During purge], you can still get your own targets,” said senior Yuna Irokawa. “You can then see your target’s location through this app we use.”
During the game, participating students’ live location is broadcasted on an app called Splashin only to their assassins. The fact that students are easily accessible by other participating students brings a concern of privacy as the hunted students could be anywhere and could be doing anything, and that information is accessible to others.
Additionally, the game involves bounties and a prize pool. The prize pool started at around $1,600, as students pay an entrance fee of $10 each. If a bounty is set on someone, half of the bounty goes to the prize pool, and the other half goes to the student who eliminated the bounty.
Senior Assassin brings many safety concerns such as the danger of cars being involved, the disobeying of rules, legal ideas of trespassing and the misinterpretation of water guns in public. Cars can pose a threat, as this game is physical and people need to be quick. A lot of the time, students rush their cars up to opponents, sometimes even breaking rules and eliminating their opponents in a moving car.
“I would probably make the rules at the beginning [of the game] more clear,” Irokawa said. “For this round, a lot of the rules weren’t fully listed and a lot of rules were added on later on.”
Trespassing is a very evident idea of the privacy concerns, as students feel obliged and are able to go into people’s yards during this game, especially during purge which could potentially get students involved with the law.
Furthermore, if playing in a public setting, there is a risk of the water guns being mistaken for actual guns. Last year, there were two separate instances in which the police were called to threats of potential firearms — at Hillsdale Shopping Mall and at a resident’s house — but these turned out to be water guns. In relation to the safety concern of trespassing, there are concerns about stalking and invasions of home privacy. At times, commonly during purge, students have snuck on to someone’s property to eliminate them from the game.
Moreover, it is required for students to film their targets when eliminating them from the game. Students upload their “kills” on the Splashin app to be verified, which brings an invasion of privacy to the eliminated student. Though it is legal to film in public areas in California, a lot of the time these eliminations are filmed in places where filming is illegal, like homes or places of activity like an office building or gym.
Though the game is widely popular, Senior Assassin is not worth the concerns of safety and privacy that it brings. This was proven true, as the game was eventually canceled on March 27, halting students from further participation. Therefore, if this game wants to make a comeback for the graduating class of 2026, various revisions need to be put in place.