Vandalism believed to have been perpetrated by 21 students at Flathead High School on Tuesday morning was a prank that went awry, Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset said Wednesday night.

“What I can tell you is that what turned out to probably be a senior prank ended up going further than it was expected,” Nasset said. “A few kids jumped into a crowd that really didn’t have bad intentions. There was a lot of damage done.”

Nasset said the school has security cameras that helped identify the number of students involved, but that the quality of the cameras is poor so positively identifying the suspects from the footage was challenging.

Evidence at the scene was linked back to a retail store, which led to some of the suspects.

After ferreting out a few individuals and making the link to the store, officers ended up with a “gold mine of information,” according to the chief.

“We believe that we have almost all of them identified, with work between the school resource officer and the administration and some witnesses that came forward,” Nasset said. “I believe we have it solved. It’s just a matter of cleanup at this point.”

Exactly what will happen to those involved remains unclear. School Superintendent Mark Flatau has said that the discipline of individual students is confidential.

The school had sent home a flyer last week warning students that senior pranks that included criminal acts would not be tolerated.

“Individuals will be held accountable for senior pranks that promote illegal activities at school,” the pamphlet said. “This includes actions that are disruptive, distracting, incompatible, or harmful to school operations. Depending upon the severity of the illegal activity, the discipline consequence may include suspension or expulsion, and exclusion from the graduation ceremony.”

Kalispell Police Investigations Capt. Doug Overman said no one had been charged or cited in the incident as of Thursday afternoon.

“There are so many moving pieces here,” Overman said. “It’s going to take time before we get to that point. We’re trying to iron out what the original intent was and where it went from there.”

Overman said the department wants those involved to be held culpable, but also wants to discern exactly how much each person was involved.

“We’re comfortable saying that it started as a senior prank with a large group of individuals and some individuals in that group took it to a different level,” Overman said. “We are trying to narrow it down to those culpable parties ... Some individuals decided to take it to a very inappropriate level.”

He said he believed that School Resource Officer Cory Clarke was about halfway through interviewing the dozens of people involved.

“We want to make sure that we are fair to everybody involved,” Overman said. “We are doing a good and thorough investigation.”

Overman said that everyone identified as a suspect thus far is over the age of 18.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.