SKOWHEGAN -- File this one under potent portables.

Students and staff arrived for classes Friday morning at Skowhegan Area High School to find a portable potty perched on the roof of the school, a stuffed dummy on the commode gazing down into the parking lot.

"We had two guys on the bottom guarding it and all the rest were up top yanking on it," Skowhegan senior Greg Saydjari said, admitting his role in the toilet caper. "We had a ladder out back."

Saydjari and the other students who were involved aren't being disciplined for the senior prank, said Skowhegan High School Principal Rick Wilson.

He said the school maintenance department successfully removed the potty later in the morning Friday.

"We have a history of non-destructive pranks that don't harm anybody and, really, until it harms someone, we don't put a whole lot of energy into worrying about it," Wilson said. "There are things to be worried about and to put your energy on. I'm focused right now on making sure my kids are learning in school and that's where my energy needs to be."

Saydjari and other students "hooked up a couple of ropes to the porta potty," Saydjari said, "went out back and just hauled it up that first roof, went up the ladder and hauled it right up on top of the gym and set it on the corner."

In all, said Saydjari and fellow senior Nathan Nixon, both of Skowhegan, there were a dozen boys that were privy, so to speak, to the plans carried out late Thursday night.

The boys had lookouts on the main road with cell phones for communication and added a final touch of Class of '08 by chaining shut -- with padlocks -- the front doors to the high school.

"We took a bunch of pictures last night -- we got here at 10:30 and we left at like five minutes before midnight," Nixon said. "We had a couple of kids sitting at the Marty Stevens Learning Center watching for cops to turn in to the road."

Apparently, Skowhegan students learned simple physics at the high school this year -- the ropes-and-ladder trick applied the common laws governing motion, matter and energy.

"It's just a tradition and we figured we'd do something kind of incredible so figured we'd do that," Saydjari said. "Everybody thought it was kind of funny."

The rest of the Skowhegan Dirty Dozen included: Scott Mitchell, Brian Parlin, Sam McGowan, and Jake Tracy, all of Skowhegan; Stephen McDaniel, Kyle Norweg, Bryant Lorette and Beau Mercier, all of Norridgewock; Shawn Gray of Smithfield; and Clay Landry of Canaan.

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com