High School Announcements: Fill & Download for Free

We planted green beans in unexpected places.As we neared graduation, we decided we wanted to leave our legacy in a way that would outlast our stay. So a few months before graduation, we broke into school once a week at night, armed with a huge bag of green bean seeds.We spent a couple weeks mapping the locations of the security cameras beforehand and planning routes that would avoid them. One route involved going into the control room of the school hall and rappelling down with bed sheets.We planted these beans everywhere..random patches of grass, the principal’s parking spot and the best of all, the school field. Keep in mind, these plants can grow pretty tall, so when you are playing a game of rugby on the school field people notice! We used the plants to express our political/religious beliefs and spelt out certain phrases that high schoolers might commonly use.We worked hard the weeks building up, watering the plants inconspicuously during breaks and after classes. Soon our labor started to bear fruits as our plants became a spectacle and gained a cult following, while we observed silently.The matter eventually escalated and the principal made an announcement to the school warning whoever planted the beans to stop. They surveyed the security cameras but couldn’t find any evidence of us planting the beans as we avoided the cameras.All said and done, this was pretty crazy for a conservative society like Singapore, albeit harmless and fun!Edit: Wow I did not expect this to be this popular, i managed to dig up a few original pictures we took since the response was so great.This was planted on the side of the school field, a miracle that it grew this large without getting trampled.School principal’s parking lot.Beside the school field.The largest one and probably how they noticed someone was planting green beans..

When I was in class X, I was a Class Topper.The most studious guy who never misses a single day of school.One of the most favorite students of all the faculties and principal.On the annual function day, they were about to distribute awards.I knew I was not getting anything as I never participated in any of the activities.There was no study in the school so I didn't go.In the school anchor announced, 'The Best Attendance Award' goes to ‘Mohan Sisodiya’.The anchor announced one more time.No one showed up.All the faculty members and principal looked for me.They were super confident that I can not miss school.But that day I did.They felt very bad in front of their guest but they moved on for that moment.Later on after the function, Principal took my trophy to his office.Next day I went to school my friends told me about the award.I went to principal's office to get it.Principal scolded me very badly and said I will never get it and it was a mistake they announced my name.He was very angry....And this is how I never received my first and last award :)

A freshman I didn’t recognize approached me one morning in 1999. It was my senior year, and I was on my way to host a kind of music and morning announcements show on our school’s version of a radio station.He asked me if I was Matt Archambault. I confirmed, and he handed me a piece of paper, then took off. He seemed very nervous.The paper had instructions for teachers at our school, step by step instructions for administering the SALT Survey.The SALT Survey is a massive two-decade-long study of high school students in Rhode Island. It tracks the efforts of the school system by tracking the students through periodic multiple choice surveys. We were among the first to participate.The tests were personal, as I remember. In addition to questions about our study habits were questions about drug addiction, sex, depression, family life, etc. Needless to say, the survey was confidential. The people who made the survey sent instructions for teachers to protect the anonymity of every student who participated.But teachers at our school received these additional instructions, the instructions I now held in my hand. They looked official, right out of the main office and signed by our principal.It was sinister.The frightened freshman had circled two paragraphs with a black magic marker, highlighting what he wanted me to see.Each copy of the survey had a unique code at the top, a number. Our teachers were instructed to ‘casually’ walk around the room as we took the survey and take note of which students had which numbers.The numbers were sequential, and teachers were instructed to only check a few numbers so as not to be spotted. Then deduce the numbers for every student in their class.Needless to say, this was a gross violation of the privacy of students. Many of us were taking the survey seriously, and the school’s administrators wanted to know what dark secrets we were anonymously sharing.So I made a couple hundred copies.I passed them out all day, small stacks for the best-connected students in each grade. I got the word out hard.The next morning, I was planning on addressing the issue during morning announcements, outing our principal for what I considered gross misconduct. Students needed to know that what they’d shared was now administrative knowledge.Yeah, that freshman knew who to deliver that paper to!As the moment of truth approached, I was nervous. I was sitting at the mic with minutes to go before announcements started. There were 4 or 5 other students with me, all with various announcements of their own - track and field results, French club, etc.Then the principal came into the studio.“Hey Matt, have you seen this?” she asked, waving one of my photocopies.She looked pissed.“I heard a rumor that someone is planning on speaking about this during announcements. I need you to make sure that doesn’t happen, okay?”Obviously, she’d heard what I was planning. And for some reason, her request worked. I didn’t make the announcement. I was 17, what can I say?We already had a contentious relationship, and this wasn’t going to help.The next day, she pulled me from a class and sat me down with a reporter from a local newspaper. They asked me to explain what I knew. I told my side. She then told her side, with some preposterous and lame half-lie to cover herself.A story ran. I wish I could find that to share with you! It was clearly there to protect the school - parents must have reached out when their kids showed them the evidence of the violation of privacy. My sense was that they were also trying to protect the reputation of the SALT Survey, still in its infancy.That isn’t the end of the story of that principal and me. We were fierce antagonists for the rest of the year and had more adventures.Of course, I graduated that year and moved on. She resigned the following year.My concerns about the abuse of power by those in authority were confirmed in this particular incident. I like to think I helped a thousand or so high schoolers develop a healthy dose of cynicism too.