Schools are banning it and police are saying not to play. Why the high-stakes Senior Assassins game has some on edge

Unfortunately you've used all of your gifts this month. Your counter will reset on the first day of next month. Isobel Rose hides the water gun behind her back as she stalks into a local Whitby restaurant. She doesn't know where, exactly, but she knows her target is inside -- she's been tracking his location.

And she has inside information that he's unprotected. She walks through the doors and pans the restaurant, then spots him in the far left corner. He's sitting at a long table with his friends, unaware of the approaching threat. She pulls out the neon water gun from behind her and sprays him point-blank.

"I'm sorry," she says in a video of the encounter, although it seems like she doesn't mean it. It is 10:30 p.m. on Friday night and Rose has already taken down her target. She is playing Senior Assassins, the game where soon-to-be-graduating Grade 12 students target each other using water guns and dress themselves in swim goggles, floaties or life jackets for immunity.

Students are sleeping in their cars, hiding in bushes and betraying lifelong friends, all to be the last one standing and win a prize of hundreds of dollars. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW At the same time as the game grows in popularity in Canada, so too do its detractors. Some schools are threatening to suspend students who play. Even though most versions of the game use water guns, police around the Greater Toronto Area are warning of the dangers of bystanders confusing replica guns with real ones.

In York region alone, police say they made 20 arrests between May 1 - 19 linked to the game, laying one charge for assault with a weapon. For many students and parents, though, the game is a way to blow off steam and celebrate the final month before graduation. "It's kind of dumb," said Paige Cochrane, a student playing at R.H. King Academy in Scarborough, of the opposition to Assassins.

"It's just a fun game for seniors to do ... Why are you destroying our fun?" Gta York police warn young people against playing the 'Senior Assassin' game and using toy guns Femi Dawodu How to get your target The game is co-ordinated through an app called Splashin, where participants are assigned a target to squirt with a water gun before the round, often a week, ends. The app shows the target's location. Successfully avoid being squirted and advance to the next round.

Wear immunity items like swim goggles or flotation devices for protection against whoever is targeting you. The finer details vary from school to school, but most treat school property, work and places of worship as off-limits. Most games also include occasional purges, when players can get anyone. The buy-in is typically $5.

At Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, where Grade 12 student Robbie Adamson has been playing for more than a month, the winner gets $250. Adamson got his first target early on. An inside source -- his friend -- told him his target, a volleyball player, took his immunity items off when he rode the subway home. So Adamson followed him on Line 2, carefully riding undetected in the car next to him.

When they arrived at Ossington station, near where the target lives, Adamson stepped out just before the subway doors closed. He chased his target down the platform and got him on the stairs. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Of the 90 students who signed up, 29 are left, including Adamson. He wears a life-jacket whenever he leaves the house.

"I think I have good odds," he explained. "I'm very paranoid." Cochrane wears her floaties constantly. When her family went for a nice dinner on a recent Sunday, she insisted on keeping them on. "You can't, we're going out," her mother Astrid Bloemen recalled telling her.

"She goes, 'No, no, they'll know my target.' So we allowed her to do it." Cochrane got some weird looks. "But I had to do it," she said. She's having too much fun playing to risk elimination. "This is the one thing that seniors look forward to," said Kristen Bones, whose son is playing at Monarch Park Collegiate Institute.

"I've never seen my son so excited about something." 'Significant risk to students' Not all schools agree. The principal of St. Joseph College School near Queen's Park sent a letter to parents explaining the game poses "significant risk to students." "Any student found engaging in this game, or similar activities, may face disciplinary action, including suspension," principal Jennifer Correia wrote. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The Toronto Catholic District School Board said it supports principals discouraging participation on school property because of the "serious safety risks" the game poses.

The Toronto District School Board said replica weapons are not allowed on school property. Gta Laptops damaged and kids burned: A Toronto school board warns of 'dangerous' social media challenges Isabel Teotonio Police in Durham, York, Halton, Waterloo and London have issued public warnings. In Durham, a residential window was smashed and a homeowner was sprayed with a substance after opening their front door in incidents police say are possibly related to the game. Last year, in Florida, a high school student was shot in the arm by a homeowner who assumed their water gun was real.

York police said in a statement that calls involving a firearm are treated as legitimate until proved otherwise. "Police-involved shootings have occurred where the firearm is later determined to have been a replica," the police force said, "and the officer has been found to be justified in their actions." Toronto police spokesperson Ashley Visser said the service is "not aware of any incidents in relation to this game." In its community guidelines, the Splashin app requires users to use only bright-coloured equipment that can't be confused with a real gun, and prohibits any activity that appears illegal. Rose, a Grade 12 student at All Saints Catholic Secondary School in Whitby, doesn't have concerns of her neon pink and yellow water gun being mistaken for anything else. Not that it matters for her anymore.

Recently, walking into a friend's house, Rose turned around to close the door, then had a water gun pointed in her face. "I'm so sorry," her friend said, before pulling the trigger. Rose wasn't too upset. She had been playing for a few weeks and it was getting old.

"I was kind of done with the game," she said.