Someone's idea of a "senior prank" at Ponderosa High School turned out to be animal cruelty when a student Wednesday morning dropped 45 chicks from a second- floor balcony onto the school's main office area.

Seven of the birds died, and an eighth was not expected to survive, officials at the Parker-area school said.

"Unfortunately (it was) something students think is silly, and it turns out to be senseless," said Mike Lynch, director of schools at Douglas County School District. "Why would somebody do something like this?"

The surviving chicks were taken to a school staff member's home.