No-TV Week Ends on a Sweet Note

The sweetest principal of the day is Ron Jones.

At least that was his description after being decorated like a sundae Friday by 141 Mountain View Elementary School students. The event was the students’ reward for abstaining from watching TV for an entire week.

The idea to turn Jones into a human sundae was suggested by first-grade teacher Teresa de Croupet.

“I saw the idea on an Internet Web site,” De Croupet said, “and I thought the children might need a special motivator.”

At the beginning and end of the week, which covered April 22-28, students and their parents signed pledges not to watch television and confirmation that they hadn’t.

On Friday, in celebration of her son’s achievement, Susan Van-Es looked on as 7-year-old Cody dumped multicolored sprinkles down the principal’s back.

“We stopped watching television for a week and we walked the dogs and played board games,” she said. “Even now we watch television a little less.”

The labor of building the human sundae was done by grade: kindergarten and first grade, chocolate syrup; second grade and third grade, sprinkles; fourth grade, whipped cream.

The whole school, 525 students, sat in a big circle around Jones, who himself sat on a chair in the middle of a wading pool. De Croupet commanded the student sundae-makers with a loudspeaker.

“Now just a little whipped cream, kids, and no shooting Mr. Jones in the eyes, OK?”

Afterward, as Jones rinsed himself off, first-grade teacher Rush Stringfellow commented on the merits of condiments as beauty products.

“If that makes hair grow, then I’m next,” he said.