“I was basically the bathroom queen,” English teacher Ms. Barter said.

Thirty years ago she was in charge of standing outside of the bathroom waiting to see if there was smoke coming from the girls bathroom. At that distant time, smoking was much more common occurrence both inside the school and out. The rule breakers were prepared. They had a student who stood lookout to announce, “Ms. Barter is coming!” Then there would be little sizzles  as the cigarettes hit the toilet water.

One day, Barter recounts, a girl wanted to check to see what the boys were doing in the nearby bathroom, so she decided to open up the ceiling tile and crawl along the pipes to the boys room next door. What the young lady didn’t take into account was the fact that there was a Quantity Foods classroom next to the boys restroom where future chefs were taught. Quantity Foods made everything from scratch, including potato chips.

A few other students helped this adventurer into the ceiling so that she could shimmy along the pipes. However, she overshot the boys bathroom and instead removed the ceiling tile above Quantity Foods – directly above a pot of boiling oil for the french fries. The young student was trapped: unable to crawl backward or forward because she was stuck halfway down the wall with no place to escape. The administrators had to come and help her down from the ceiling so she wouldn’t slip and fall into the oil.

“Back in those days there were no school shootings, just devious fun,” Barter said, recalling the memory fondly. The student got a few days suspension for her efforts, and it became a school-wide laugh. Well, it was a laugh for everyone who witnessed this occurrence apart from the Quantity Foods students who were terrified by the sudden appearance of a person hanging from the ceiling.

“The student wasn’t a bad kid. She was actually among the students whom I liked. It wasn’t a malicious act, just a good-natured, devious one.”