CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police have charged Mallard Creek High School students with breaking and entering and vandalism.

Police say the students, many of who are seniors, broke into the school Monday night and did $5,000 in damages.

CMPD calls this a “foolish prank” and a “premeditated event.”

Custodians were cleaning after hours Monday at the school and called the police when the students began running through the school, throwing balloons and confetti, and trashing the school.

Police said the number of student vandals grew to more than 50.

Investigators say that some students entered an empty classroom and unlocked a first-floor window earlier on Monday during school hours. The students then returned to campus between 7 and 8 p.m. and were caught on school surveillance footage getting back into the school through the window they unlocked earlier in the day, according to police.

CMPD said the students hid in the classroom until about 9 p.m. when they began running into the hallways and vandalizing the school.

Police say many of the accused vandals are high school seniors and might be unable to participate in their upcoming graduation ceremony.

Authorities urge parents to know where their children are and what they’re doing and to let them know some consequences could impact them in college or with employers.

Queen City News found videos on Snapchat which appear to be taken from people who discovered the mess inside the high school. In the videos, caution signs are knocked over, toilet paper and streamers are scattered in the hallways and draped over the railings, and the stairs are littered with trash.

One student tells QCN that school leaders informed other students of the vandalism Tuesday morning and asked students not to congregate in the hallways during class time.

Junior Christian Powe had not seen the videos until QCN showed them to him.

“I saw confetti or balloons everywhere, it’s like they had a party or something, and they just trashed it overall,” Powe said. “I mean, we’re provided with decent teachers, a good education, and that’s how they want to treat it back; I don’t know what the school did to deserve all that.”