Two Oak Park and River Forest High School students thought it would be funny to make prank calls to a classroom teacher, ala MTV’s Punk’d celebrity practical joke show.
But the high school ended up getting the last laugh after school officials were tipped off about the incident.
Two students were suspended for using their cellphones to make prank calls to one teacher’s classroom phone just before last week’s spring break. Cellphone use by students is currently banned in the building.
The two students made the prank calls from their classroom, said Jason Edgecombe, assistant superintendent for human resources. Edgecombe did not know the nature of the calls, what was said, or if the teacher actually took the calls or if they went to voice mail. Calls by Wednesday Journal to OPRF’s discipline deans were not immediately returned.
The prank calls were discovered after another student sitting in the same classroom told school officials what was going on.
When the two students were questioned, they still had the phones on them, with the teacher’s number still on the phones. A total of 17 calls were made to the teacher’s phone between the two students.
“That’s not a very good way to hide your tracks,” said Edgecombe.
Students caught using a cell phone in the building will have them confiscated, but because the phone prank occurred in a classroom, the two students received in-school suspensions.
“Students are aware of the rule,” Edgecombe said of having cellphones. “They keep them in their pocket or purses. They’re only taken if they’re taken out in the day and shown in some fashion.”
-Terry Dean