Every Friday, at Sutter Elementary School, the school community gathers for Froggy Friday, a spirit rally where the school celebrates student successes. During each Froggy Friday, the crowd breaks into a spirited rendition of The Sutter Bunch Song, with lyrics by Kathy Strach and George Casem: “It’s the story of Sutter students/Who were looking for a school year full of fun…” Sure to kick off the aforementioned “school year full of fun” was the duct-taping of Michael Fong, principal of Sutter Elementary School, to a wall on Friday, Sept. 25.
“I don’t mind being duct-taped because it’s for a good cause.” Fong says. “I’m willing to do anything for the school to support the children, the teachers, and the school community. Deb Davi is our child nutrition services employee and she’s also a Sutter parent. It was her idea to tape me to the wall.”
“Every class made coin donations as part of the Scholastic coin drive. Scholastic matches the donations and buys books for kids in need,” says Yvonne Hirsch, school PTA president. “Mrs. Burke’s class collected the most coins and so they won the opportunity to tape the principal to the wall for winning the challenge. It’s a fun way to support literacy.”
The revenue from the school’s Scholastic book fair, from Sept. 14-18, was a whopping $9663.51. Separate from that, the change jars collected from the classes totaled $922.82. Of that amount, Kelly Burke’s third grade class raised $238.52.
At the assembly, the third grade class gathered in front of Fong, perched on a couple of crates. Holding long strips of pre-cut duct tape in various designs, students gently patted the strips down on Fong and the wall. In minutes, the principal was covered in duct tape.
“A kid in our class got the Barbie duct tape,” says Sam, 8. “Mrs. Burke gave me a strip of the duct tape for me to duct tape Mr. Fong with. It was fun.”
“This is my first time being duct taped,” Fong says. “It felt like I was suspended in air. They covered me full of duct tape. They used 21 rolls of duct tape. The parents used scissors to cut me loose. I thought it would take longer to undo the duct tape, but it just took three to five minutes of pulling the tape off.”