The dangers of a Pitman senior scavenger hunt were raised with the superintendent a day before a student drowned

For years, the Pitman High School senior scavenger hunt was treated as a rite of passage, including pranks such as tagging a teacher’s house, shaving an eyebrow, or throwing a lightbulb at someone’s front door.

But teacher Sean Cunningham grew concerned in June when the list compiled by the class of 2023 seemed to take a dark turn, with activities that included swimming across Alcyon Lake, having an orgy among team members, or performing other sexual acts with fellow students, according to the list obtained by The Inquirer under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act.

“I felt obligated to pass this along to you,” Cunningham wrote in a June 10 email to interim Superintendent Steven Crispin, attaching a page from this year’s scavenger hunt list. “Not that this is necessarily a school matter, but it brings into light the potential bad decisions that several of our students could possibly be making ... .”

Cunningham said another teacher forwarded the list to him, and other educators were “wondering what we should do” about the event they anticipated would be that night, a Saturday, even though it wasn’t sanctioned or sponsored by the school system, which is in Gloucester County.

Crispin responded to Cunningham a short time later that day, saying in an email: “Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware of this activity and I am hopeful that nothing goes wrong. Any additional information would be appreciated.”

The scavenger hunt was held that Sunday, a day later, when senior Victor Rodriguez, 18, of Deptford, drowned while trying to swim across Alcyon Lake. His body was pulled from the lake about 17 hours later, after an intensive search.

According to police, Crispin did not alert the department about the list that was forwarded to him, and, according to records provided to The Inquirer under the state’s open records law, did not email anyone else about the scavenger hunt after Cunningham’s note.

Crispin and Cunningham did not respond to email messages and telephone calls seeking comment. In a statement, the district’s lawyer, Daniel Long, declined comment, offering sympathy to Rodriguez’s family.

Like Cunningham, a school resource officer named Peter Stefanopolous heard that the scavenger hunt was planned for that Saturday, according to Deputy Police Chief Tom Zander, so police were on alert for possible pranks — although unaware of any specific items on the list.

They certainly didn’t know that swimming the lake was an item, Pitman Police Chief Dan McAlteer said. Although the 21-member department regularly patrols the lake, which is 10 feet at its deepest point, McAlteer said, they would have increased patrols had school officials shared the list.

In a message to Pitman staff on June 12, shortly before crews found Rodriguez’s body, Crispin wrote, “One of our students, while participating in a senior ‘scavenger hunt,’ in all probability drowned in Alcyon Lake. As you can certainly imagine, this is a heart-wrenching issue to deal with for the students and staff at the high school and they are going to need everyone’s thoughts and prayers as they deal with this tragic event.”

Pitman’s senior-organized scavenger hunt is a well-known, longtime tradition in the borough of about 8,800 residents, McAlteer said. The list of challenges was passed down every year so the next class could make changes, although the planned date and the list were mostly kept secret. A former student who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the list usually has about 150 challenges.

“In the past, most items on this list have been innocuous, innocent pranks,” Cunningham wrote in that June email to the superintendent, showing one page of the list with 20 challenges. “As a fellow resident in town, I know I sleep lightly whenever this night comes around.”

Carried out on a single day by five-member teams, the hunt is won by the team with the most points. Values are assigned for each activity — the more outlandish, the more points. To get credit, the challenge must be photographed or videotaped.

Like scavenger hunts held in other school districts, Pitman’s list included everything from food pranks to (many) sexual acts to borderline illegal activities: eating a stick of butter, licking peanut butter off a “girl team member’s” nipple, selling fake drugs to middle schoolers (at least $5 worth), having sex in the back seat of a car, and swimming across Alcyon Lake.

Swimming the lake was worth 70 points, with an additional 30 points possible for swimming back. (The orgy was worth 100 points.)

Rodriguez, a member of the wrestling team, was enrolled at Pitman High for his senior year and previously attended Deptford schools, where he was a popular student and athlete. It was unclear how or why he was chosen among his group to swim the lake, where swimming is prohibited, but authorities believed he was the only student to attempt it. His brother did not respond to a message.

He made it about halfway across when he disappeared. In a 911 call obtained by The Inquirer, a woman told rescuers that her boyfriend had jumped into the lake to try to save Rodriguez.

“He’s in the middle of the lake and he’s screaming for help. We need someone here fast,” she said. The dispatcher told her help was on the way and sirens could be heard on the call. By the middle of the call, the woman said Rodriguez was no longer visible.

The episode remains under investigation by the county prosecutor’s office.

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McAlteer said police plan to work more closely with school and borough officials to help students organize “positive, not dangerous things.”

“If we saw swimmers swimming in the lake absolutely the officers would say ‘Get out of the lake,’” McAlteer said of Alcyon Lake, whose water was once contaminated by runoff from a toxic landfill. “This is an absolute tragedy. I want to learn from it.”