Switcheroo

During his high school career, John Burkle and his friends had a habit of playing pranks on teachers. In an area before fancy security systems, they were seldomly caught.

“We all knew that we were lock jawed. If one of us got caught doing something stupid, they would never sell out the other person,” Burkle said.

One Friday, they snuck into the school through an open art room window on the first floor.

“We cracked it about an inch Friday at the end of the day,” Burkle said. “Nobody checked it and so we went back Saturday and it was still open.”

West Liberty High School, which had been built in 1917, did not have locks on any of the classroom doors. Being careful not to damage any of their teacher’s things, they switched the classrooms of two of their teachers.

“We flip flopped everything, and put it back together exactly [as it had been in the other room],” Burkle said. “We thought it would be funny. But [on Monday] the teachers just flip flopped rooms and didn’t act like anything happened.”

The friends had been disappointed but did not ask the teachers about the switch due to their worry that the teachers would suspect they were behind it.

“We just all accepted that our joke backfired,” Burkle said. “For the rest of school year, and probably until the school was destroyed, the teachers just stayed in those rooms instead.”