Schools / Education news : Students Well-Read, so Principal’s All Wet
After his students met their goal of reading 10,000 books during the school year, Victory Christian School Principal Jim Arkes made good on his end of the bargain: He was repeatedly doused with water in a dunk tank.
The 250 students at Victory, a private elementary school, actually read more than 10,300 books. So Arkes was obligated to climb into the Flush-Em, a contraption that releases a torrent of water when a lever is hit by a softball.
“The whole school turned out,” said Jim Parsons, a computer teacher at Victory. “The kids were going crazy. They just really had a wonderful time.”
Arkes has issued the reading challenge to the students for three years in a row. In 1994, the principal was obliged to eat his lunch on the school roof after the children met their reading goal of 3,000 books. Last year Arkes was hit in the face with pies after the students completed 5,000 books.
For next year, Arkes has agreed to go back into the dunk tank--but only if the students read 12,000 books.
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