APRIL FOOL’S JOKE NOT SO FUNNY TO SCHOOL OFFICIALS
LOUISA, Ky. — Several years ago I opened a copy of the old Paintsville Herald and saw a top headline that almost made me fall over. Editor Scott Perry (may he rest in peace) had come up with a huge story that shocked the readership – but it was really an April Fools joke.
In the years since I have done the same thing at various times with the newspaper I owned in Martin County and I believe with the Lazer, too. To me it is fun.
So today I decided to get everybody’s goat with an April Fools joke story that said Spring Break had been cancelled for next week in Lawrence County and within ten minutes after posting it I got a call from a BOE Central office employee asking me to take the story down. The guy said the scantily clad Spring Breaker I used for a graphic was not appropriate and the article cast Supt. Fletcher in a bad light and made him look bad (which was never my intention of course).
So I took the picture off and put a nice Spring like one in its place… and figured our viewers would get a kick out of the joke.
Nope. Ten minutes later the BOE guy called back and asked if I would take the April Fools story completely off. He said it was causing a lot of trouble for all the schools as people called to see what was going on about Spring Break.
Wow!
I didn’t realize that so many viewers would not read past the headline to the story which plainly said April Fools at the end. I also didn’t realize that many people would see it that quickly — like 500 in 10 minutes. But since I shared it on our Lazer FB page, I guess a lot of people saw it there and didn’t click on the story, they just saw the headline.
I sure am sorry if I caused anyone any real trouble with this innocent April Fools joke which was intended to get laughs – not scowls – so I promise to not do it any more.
April Fools!
Here is what the original story looked like:
SPRING BREAK CANCELLED IN LAWRENCE COUNTY
Fletcher says students, teachers need to be in class
LOUISA, Ky. — Lawrence Schools chief Dr. Rob Fletcher announced today that he has decided to cancel next week’s planned Spring Break. He said teachers and students have already missed too much school and the extra classroom time is needed to boost test scores.
The Spring break trips to Myrtle Beach for the baseball and softball teams have also been cancelled. Busses will run at normal times each day.
“This is not a time to be having fun, we need to buckle down and PAY ATTENTION to the important things in life,” Fletcher said.
He said he and his family will, however, be gone to the Bahamas next week in case he needs to be reached. All cenral office employees will also be on vacation.
April Fools! Have a nice Spring Break 2016…
