MacAfee Road School principal Bill Grippo was duct-taped to a cafeteria wall on Jan. 13 as part of a fundraiser for a school program.

He’s slept on a roof, been dunked in a tub of water and now, he’s been duct-taped to a cafeteria wall.

One has to wonder what’s next for MacAfee Road School principal Bill Grippo.

Grippo allowed himself to be duct-taped on Jan. 13 as an incentive for students to raise money for the school’s “Positive Behavior Support In Schools” – or PBIS – program. Students donated a dollar for one piece of duct tape to help stick Grippo to the wall.

Some students really wanted to make sure Grippo stayed on that wall.

“Some kids donated $20, so they’ll get 20 strips,” said Kindergarten special ed teacher Tara Eastman, who is also the head of the school’s “PBIS Reach High” program.

The money will be used for supplies and prizes for the program’s weekly raffles.

Whenever a student is seen exhibiting positive behavior, they get some “Mac Bucks,” which are basically tickets for that week’s raffle, Eastman said. The raffles are held every Friday.

“We’re trying to get away from behavior correction and more toward recognizing and acknowledging the positive behavior that’s going on,” she said. “So in the hallway, instead of saying, you’re not on the silver line, we say thank you for walking on the silver line, and we give out Mac Bucks.”

The “Duct Tape the Principal” program is “just kind of a fun way to raise money,” she said. “Then we’ll have our big quarterly raffle at the end of it where we’ll give out bigger prizes that they don’t get at the raffles.”

Eastman said fellow Kindergarten teacher Marisa Saucedo organized the duct tape event.

To prepare for the event, Grippo donned a cover-all paint suit, then stood on several mats with his back up against a wall.

He was preliminarily duct-taped to the wall by some staffers to ensure that he stuck when the mats were removed. (That kind of worked.)

The students were then led into the cafeteria by grade, and when their names were called they walked up to a teacher, received their strips of duct tape, and then applied them to Grippo.

It wasn’t long before the principal looked as though we was nested in a gray cocoon.

When all the students who donated had applied their duct tape strips, a countdown was done and the mats were taken from under Grippo’s feet.

He was held up for a minute or so by two staff members, and he stayed on the wall for a few seconds after the let him go, but eventually gravity took over and the duct tape came loose on one side.

And the children were cheering the entire time.

“It was a different feeling,” Grippo said, after he had shed the tape and the painter’s suit. “I started to sweat a lot because I had that paint suit on.”

“The kids’ excitement kept me motivated,” he said. “It was good to see them so excited about participating in this Reach High program.”

“This was fun, it’s been done before, but to see so many little kids involved was cool,” he said. “It was neat.”

Eastman said the group plans different fundraising activities throughout the school year.

“We’ll do a door decorating contest,” she said. “We’re having a staff versus student basketball game in March.”

The Reach High program is beneficial, Grippo said, because it “keeps their focus on, you can have a good time and do fun things, and if you behave, you participate in those things.”

2017 MacAfee Road School Principal Duct-Taped To Wall