1st Graders Tape Principal to Wall

Some Santa Clara elementary students plan to duct tape their principal to the wall Friday afternoon as a prize for winning a fundraising contest that brought in nearly $2,000 for a books program.

The roughly 500 students at Westwood Elementary School raised $1,940 for the Scholastic One for Books program by holding a bucket drive from Sept. 19 through Sept. 23.

"Each classroom received buckets that the kids put money in," their principal, Andrew Lucia said. "They brought in tooth fairy money, allowances, money they found stuck in between the cushions of the couch. ... They were fired up to duct tape me to the wall."
      
The top class, Heidi Murray's second-grade class, brought in $291 and earned the prize.

The money will be used to purchase books for three national nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping kids and families in need.

The nonprofits are Kids in Distressed Situations Inc., the Kids in Need Foundation, and the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation.

In turn, teachers at Westwood will be given the same amount of money they generated for the fundraiser to buy books from a book fair for their classrooms.

Lucia said the new books would boost the small libraries teachers have in their classrooms at a time when every school in the district is grappling with budget cuts, the impacts of which Lucia said students are feeling directly. The school library has gone from being open five days a week to now only 20 minutes a week.

The duct taping was scheduled to take place at 1:30 p.m. at Westwood Elementary School, located at 435 Saratoga Ave.

To prepare for the duct taping, Lucia is planning on eating apple crisps being prepared by a classroom of first-graders.