DALLAS TWP. — Wycallis Elementary School principal Brian Bradshaw was duct taped and suspended from a gymnasium wall Thursday morning.
Bradshaw was not a victim of a rebellious student population. Instead, he was making good on a reading challenge he gave to the school’s 560 students back in March.
Bradshaw, along with Wycallis Elementary School’s reading specialists Caitlyn Cooper and Lynn Bull, challenged the students to read five days a week for 20 minutes a day throughout March.
Parents had to initial a calendar to note their children read for the required time, Cooper said.
“They (Cooper and Bull) brought the idea to me,” Bradshaw said. “We wanted to ramp it up to get school-wide participation.”
The contest resulted in a 95 percent student participation rate for the Dallas Township school.
“I am really, really impressed,” Bradshaw said to the students who were sitting on the floor of the gym. “This would not be possible if you didn’t read. It is time for me to repay my debit.”
Wearing old clothes, Bradshaw stood on two side-by-side milk crates with a board over the top of them up against a cinder block wall.
Cooper and Bull placed the first strips of gray duct tape from above Bradshaw’s shoulders and across his torso.
Fifth-grade classes were the first to start the taping. Each student was given a three- to four-foot long piece of duct tape and formed two lines to stick their six-foot-five principal to the wall.
Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy” boosted the already high energy level among the students and faculty.
The children could apply their stripe of duct tape anywhere from Bradshaw’s shoulders down to his feet.
“My arms will stay free,” he said.
The Dallas High School physics class was supposed to figure out how many pieces of duct tape would it take to secure him to the wall. But Bradshaw had not heard the answer before a duct tape cocoon covered his body.
Some concerned fifth-grade students placed gym mats in front of their principal in case the tape was not strong enough to hold him to the wall.
Alan Lisman, a fifth-grader, did not believe the duct tape would hold his principal to the wall.
While four-grade students, Taylor Pickett, Shelby Bedony and Gabby Rogaski thought Bradshaw would stick to the wall.
After noticing how sticky duct tape is, first graders Misaki Inoue and Tyler Spaciano concluded their principal should be safely stuck on the wall.
Periodically, Bradshaw would move his arms to the beat of the music.
“It is getting tight,” he said. “But it is comfortable. It is good for my back.”
The taping lasted about an hour and a half.
Bradshaw was covered from his shoulders to his feet in gray and colorful patterned duct tape. At one point a teacher made a bow tie out of duct tape for the school administrator.
“I am very very glad to be stuck here,” Bradshaw told the students. “It shows you all are readers.”
Without a drum roll, Cooper and Bull slowly and carefully pulled the milk crates and the board out from under Bradshaw’s feet.
He was completely suspended.
“I am officially stuck to the wall,” Bradshaw said laughing.
Bradshaw dismissed the classes from the wall and hung out for about a half hour while teachers took pictures.
“Next year we will do something else,” he said.