They tore it, crumpled it, crinkled it, stomped it, hurled it and even swam through it.

In a matter of minutes Thursday, Oak Harbor High School students emptied hundreds of three-ring binders worth of term papers onto school floors.

It’s part of an annual tradition called the Paper Toss.

The final bell of the day was the signal to let loose. The massed students hooted and hollered and chucked so many papers airborne they seem to be temporarily lost in a great arctic blast of history essays and algebra worksheets.

Then the principal made the juniors clean up.

“It’s awesome,” said senior Trevor Feinberg, who plans to enlist in the Navy. “Four years of stress all gone.”

It’s not clear when the tradition began, but it’s at least as old as the high school building, which opened in 1974. Sally Jacobs, a retired school staff member, told the Whidbey News-Times in 2014 that former principal Sid Parker wanted to keep seniors from dumping their papers in places they shouldn’t. So he said seniors could toss them in Parker Hall.

Parker Hall is long gone, replaced in the school remodel with a Student Union Building.

“It feels nice to be finally done and out of here and on with the rest of our lives,” said senior Stephen Ross. He’s off to George Fox University in the fall to study engineering.