A Chicago magnet high school senior prank turned into an example of excellent school management when a dean took an unconventional approach to a feisty student's challenging behavior last Tuesday.
In a video posted on YouTube and social news site Reddit, students on the second floor of Whitney M. Young High School in Illinois decide to stage a dance-battlesque senior prank.
Teens begin to bang on chairs and tables, and the students start hollering. One boy, with the loud support of his peers, runs up to a faculty member's doorway and dances in front of a woman's face.
The student then circles the space, looking for another challenger, when a man in a white shirt and tie catches his eye. The young man takes a flying leap, lands in front of the teacher's nose and begins to dance furiously.
What happens next, however, is both hilarious and unexpected.
Clearly amused, the administrator, identified in the video as Dean of Students John Fanning, takes the boy's hijinks in stride, breaking out into a dance of his own that looks an awful lot like a version of an Irish jig.
"Like any kid who grew up in [predominantly Irish Chicago neighborhood] Rogers Park, I was dragged to Irish dance classes," Fanning told The Huffington Post.
The post on Reddit is titled "Teacher strikes back in the best way possible," and many of the comments commended the teacher for his response. "No one got assaulted, no one got insulted, everything was awesome," user "ppcpunk" wrote.
Why get angry? Fanning asked. "As senior pranks go, it's pretty tame and innocuous," he said.
Fanning's fancy footwork put him in good company, however.
Several videos of high school teachers dancing with (or behind) their students have gone viral recently, including this prank video put together by the faculty of Abby Kelley Foster Charter School in Massachusetts, as well as this "Call Me Maybe" flash mob pulled off by teachers at Hancock High School in Mississippi.
Editor's Note: This post has been updated with John Fanning's comments.
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