SAN YSIDRO, Calif. -- Several San Ysidro High School students learned their fate after a senior prank landed them in hot water with their school and police.

To students Christian Quevedo and Juan Osuna, it seemed like a good idea and the ground rules were clear.

"I guess through all the years the school's been around nobody's pulled off a good prank, and we just thought we'd try," said Quevedo.

"We weren't going to break anything, we weren't going to steal anything; we'd just take out the desk," said Osuna.

Before the prank, Osuna had taken a master key and created duplicates.

On Tuesday, about a dozen students broke into San Ysidro High and moved hundreds of desks and chairs outside into the shape of their graduation year -- "09."

The students were caught when they tripped an alarm, and the incident gained some attention.

San Ysidro High School Principal Hector Espinoza said, "I got a call from Wisconsin, I got a call from Idaho. Almost the whole world knows about this prank."

It was not the kind of attention the seniors wanted just before graduation --- a date with the principal and their parents to learn their fate.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you as parents ought to know who did what," Espinoza said to the students' parents.

Espinoza said he did not want to downplay the incident as many of the kids are honor students who usually stay out of trouble, and that ultimately influenced his final decision.

"Overreacting can be as harmful as under-reacting so we took a couple of days to decide what the level of punishment should be," said Espinoza.

Ultimately, it would be community service, but the students' biggest fear never materialized.

"You will be allowed to walk in the graduation ceremony," Espinoza told the students.

It was good news met with relief.

"We're just kids. We did something stupid, we learned from our mistakes. It won't happen again," said Osuna.

The students are not completely in the clear just yet. Besides completing up to 40 hours of community service they will have to face a judge for trespassing.

The judge could require them to pay restitution for the $20,000 it will cost the school to change all of the locks.