Prankstars
“We are gathered here today to honor the life of our beloved teacher, Mr. Ellingford, who lived a long life full of goodness and charity.” The room was filled with students clad in black; in the corner a lone tuba player blew a mournful tune; a framed eulogy hung on the wall at the front of the classroom. As the ashes of Mr. Ellingford were scattered throughout the room, everyone cried dramatically except for one bewildered man in the back dressed in plaid.
Mr. Ellingford recalls when his students coordinated and staged his own funeral service in his classroom, and even let Mr. Ellingford attend in the back. “It was bizarre,” said Mr. Ellingford. “When I really do die, I would not mind recreating that. The students did a really good job.”
Mr. Ellingford’s funeral was fake, but Mr. Gilchrist could’ve had a real one after a student crouched under his desk and nearly gave him a heart attack when she popped out and almost caused him to topple over in his wheeled chair. “You shouldn’t do that to fat people who could die from a heart attack!” bellowed Mr. Gilchrist.
But pranks can go both ways. Mr. Gilchrist collaborated with a student to demonstrate the school’s new phone policy with a dramatic flair. The student pretended to text during class. Enraged, Mr. Gilchrist snatched the phone away, yelled at him that phones were not allowed, and chucked the device down the long hallway, shattering it into pieces. “It gave me a reputation,” laughed Mr. Gilchrist. “Students were always saying, ‘don’t ever make Gil mad, he’s crazy. He’ll flip out and throw your phone away.’ And that solved the cellphone problem in my classroom for awhile.”
Mr. Scheide demonstrated a classic trick: prank calling. While one of his students was at a sport team practice, Mr. Scheide called him using the school’s phone. Right when the student would answer, Mr. Scheide would hang up and watch the confused student’s expression from the window of the school. The student would try calling the school back, but was always told that no one had called him from the school. After multiple calls, Mr. Scheide admitted it was him pulling the student’s leg.
Mr. Steele pulled a prank on students to catch a suspected cheater. Mr. Steele left the room full of students as they took a test, and left an answer key with the wrong answers sitting on his desk. The false answer key was passed through the students as they all, except for one, copied the answers down. When nearly the whole class failed the exam, Mr. Steele told them what he did and wouldn’t let any of the students retake the test. “That got around the school like wildfire . . . and was pretty conniving on my behalf,” chuckled Mr. Steele.
Pranks aren’t limited to teacher versus student, but sometimes can be teacher versus teacher. As a parting gift for Mr. Downs’ retirement, Mr. Replogle took apart all of Mr. Downs’ desks then commenced to Seran-wrap them all into one big heap on the floor. Mr. Replogle also gave Mr. Peck a warm welcome on his first day teaching by showering Mr. Peck’s room in an explosion of confetti.
Whatever the motivation for the shenanigans at school, they break up the monotony of the everyday school habits and make indelible memories.
Amber Swain
Latest posts by Amber Swain (see all)
- Prankstars - April 17, 2018
- Refugees - April 17, 2018
