Teachers screen Home Alone during class, inspired students rebel against homework

Mount Carmel teachers hosted the first school-wide screening of a movie the day before Winter Break. The staff on Dante Ave. were finding something non-educational to do in class in the week before the school hiatus, not at all playing into the stereotype that students don’t learn at MC.

The movie being screened was the 1990 family holiday comedy Home Alone, and as the movie reached the climax, where Kevin survives a burglary by placing traps, many of the students were inspired. The remaining hours of the school day entailed a complete mess, with the inspired teenagers placing traps of their own around the school.

What was the cause of this abnormal rebellion? Homework. For only the second time that year, many of the students had received homework, and not just ones in Mr. Tim Baffoe’s English class. Almost all of those who received the homework were expected to complete it over break.

“It’s not fair at all,” complained junior Santiago Clavier. “What do they expect us to do? Complete actual schoolwork?” 

Students took over the third floor while leaving traps behind them to ensure that teachers didn’t follow. These traps included water buckets making the stairs slippery, dangerous weapons flying out of nowhere, and classics from the movie such as a burning hot handle to a door (many of those setting up this trap burned themselves). The leaders on the third floor claimed they’d only quit when the teachers got rid of the assigned homework.

“They’re never going to get us down!” shouted junior Solomon Huffman. “They’re gonna get what they deserve.”

Several of the students began to form forts preparing to stay overnight. Desks and tables were used as ways to block the entrances to classrooms, which also ironically locked the students in themselves. Many of the students only realized this after trying to get their phones that were outside the classroom.

“All we gave them was one packet,” English teacher Mr. Dan Haggerty claimed. “It would only take ten minutes away from their break.”

Many ideas came to the table regarding how to get the students to come down. One idea that was suggested was handing out free football tickets. Another that was brought to the table was free lunch passes; however, the proposal that gained the most popularity was conforming to the students’ wishes (partly because everyone wanted to go home). Right before leaving to inform the students they had won, the teachers remembered that Mount Carmel students were incapable of demonstrating cognitive skills longer than the length of a football film session. The easiest solution after all was simply waiting it out, and believe it or not, the students came down after exactly the length of a football game. Further punishments on top of the homework have been given out since the incident. The worst of these is having to learn in school for an entire day.