Had this been the method of dealing with such pranks when I was in school, I would have a very long rap sheet. Generally my teachers were fine with it because they knew I had done it and they knew I could fix it. They often asked me to troubleshoot computer problems for them anyway.
The worst reaction I ever elicited was when walked into my history teacher's unlocked classroom during my study hall period and changed the DOS prompt on her floppy-boot-only PS/2 model 25 to read "Please command me, oh benevolent [teachername]!" rather than "A>".
Generally she was pretty even keeled about what I considered equivalent pranks that didn't involve a computer, such as writing a silly message on the whiteboard behind a drawn-down map or something. So I was very surprised when she totally freaked out and all the teachers stopped letting students screw around on their PCs during slow class periods. Oooops, no more Scorched Earth during Calculus...
The worst reaction I ever elicited was when walked into my history teacher's unlocked classroom during my study hall period and changed the DOS prompt on her floppy-boot-only PS/2 model 25 to read "Please command me, oh benevolent [teachername]!" rather than "A>".
Generally she was pretty even keeled about what I considered equivalent pranks that didn't involve a computer, such as writing a silly message on the whiteboard behind a drawn-down map or something. So I was very surprised when she totally freaked out and all the teachers stopped letting students screw around on their PCs during slow class periods. Oooops, no more Scorched Earth during Calculus...