Fort Daniel Principal Gets Special 'Treat'

principal Paul Willis did not have to eat bugs today.

“I had some options: being taped to the wall, wearing a dress or coloring my hair purple,” he said.

Ultimately, he agreed to the questionably more appealing option of eating a dark chocolate-covered cricket and a white chocolate-covered larva if his students read over 80,000 pages during one week.

“As the numbers came in, I was condemned,” he said.

Willis said the students were eager to see him eat a bug and worked hard to meet the reading goal -- so hard they surpassed it by over 50,000 pages.

The effort paid off this morning as Fort Daniel students had the opportunity to watch Willis and assistant principal Dale Pugh eat a total of four bugs during the televised morning announcements.

“Next year I think we ought to shoot for half a million,” Willis said.

Though eating bugs may be moderately disgusting, Willis said he is willing to try just about anything that will encourage his students to read more.

“The dress and purple hair are not an option, but anything else is open game,” he said.