From the Old 'Juvie' Records

At Family Home Evening tonight, we played the game 'Hot Seat', where we were interviewed for two minutes about random stuff, with the ability to pass if it was too personal. One of the questions asked tonight of a fellow FHE brother was if he ever went went to detention or got in trouble in school, which brought to mind a story of my own, one of mischievousness, innocence, or the pretense thereof and possible damage to school property.

It was the middle of the afternoon in his eighth grade year, and it was one of those afternoons. You know the kind I'm talking about. Most of the work had been done, people were talking, things were laid back. Free time essentially. The young boy was with some of his buddies, just talking when one of them took out a larger than normal paperclip. They discussed what they could do with it, and being the adventurous and reckless middle school boys (Well technically not middle-schoolers as it was a Junior High) they saw the perfect use for the paperclip: Bending it to stick into one of the many electrical sockets.

Being of such of an adventurous age they knew little as to how electricity worked, except that sparks might shoot out and they might be shocked. That part deterred them from their action, the thought of how bad the shock would be until this particular boy enthusiastically though of using a piece of paper like an oven mitt to stick in the now U-shaped piece of metal.

Of course since it was his idea, he got to put it in, though perhaps it was the intelligence of the others that stopped them from doing it themselves and allowed the boy to continue on.

He put it in, sparks shot out, lights dimmed and the class stared at him. For his benefit he wasn't shocked, the paper was only singed, burn marks where it held the clip. One end of the paper clip shot out of the socket hole, straightening itself out a bit in the process and vibrating like crazy.

The teacher singled him out and the vice principal came to the class, due to the teacher calling him there or other reasons...

The vice principal led him out of the class, initially saying that the boy would be suspended for a few days, but later only sentenced the lad to a few lunch detentions.

Friends in other classes though claim the the class on the other side of the wall had some electrical problems of their own when he did that; that a computer shorted out or something to that affect, the likes of which have not been confirmed by official report. Though if such a thing were to have occurred then no doubt the suspension would have gone into effect.

The moral of this story? Sticking metal into electrical outlets is probably not a good idea.