23. Few guys did a yearly “prank”. Sophomore year, the daredevil of the group jumped out a window at the school, down a little over 2 stories and basically escaped the grounds like a prison movie.

Junior year, they decide they want to jump out of the ceiling of a classroom. They apparently gain access to the drop ceiling via the boy’s bathroom. Two guys went up into the ceiling, to my understanding guy 1 was jumping and guy 2 would film from that perspective.

So meanwhile, in English class. I’m sitting at the front-left part of the room, next to the teacher’s desk. I know what’s about to happen, but wasn’t involved. Three other people in the class of 20 or so know its happening, and they’re trying to film it. Importantly, this was in 2004, cell phones didn’t take video worth a damn. These guys had full size cameras, the kind you see skaters filming each other with.

The class is watching an insanely boring film that had some kind of significance to the material, I forget, its been awhile and this was ridiculously dull. So the class is kind of zoning out, and the teacher is in a desk in the back row by the projector (that’s how old this movie was). Pretty easy to conceal the cameras when no one’s paying attention, but I’m still impressed.

Back in the ceiling, guy 1 trips, loses his footing, and his foot bursts through the ceiling above the teachers desk (it was that cheap drop ceiling stuff, no structural integrity at all). This comes out of no where, and is also basically about 5 feet from me.

So the class kinda flips out. Guy in the ceiling figures its now or never, jumps, and falls through the ceiling. Unfortunately for him, he did not plan this very well, and his thigh slammed into an upper corner of a metal filing cabinet. He then lands awkwardly on the teacher’s chair. Also, he’s wearing a mask and all black, like Scream.

His legs all kinds of fucked up, people are freaking out. Our teacher was kind of a walking stereotype of high school english teachers. Ex hippie, super positive, all that…she’s yelling at expletives. Guy gets up, and runs as best he can out of the classroom. Another random kid in the class has no idea whats going on and chases him. Teacher chases him too. I think he managed to escape but I’m not certain. Totally got suspended later. Was very worth it.

Incidentally, guy 2 up in the ceiling apparently gets lost on the way back and instead of descending back into the boy’s room, he climbs into the adjoining girls room. Apparently, a girl was entering the restroom, and saw him climbing out. He was also suspended, no idea how he managed to explain that.

– murphymc