Don’t Mess with Jeremy Barnett

It’s all fun until the pranks begin.

and Samantha Smith|April 12, 2021

Sammy Smith

With only half an hour until class starts, Mr. Volzke works to empty the hundred plus dixie cups of water that were placed all over his room.

On Friday April 9th, Jeremy Barnett’s AP Spanish class took time out of their day to come in and prank AP World History teacher, Owen Volzke. 

Barnett’s students started off by taking out every single desk in Volzke’s room, moving them to the bottom floor, spelling out O V. The AP Spanish students, with the help of Barnett, tied string from one end of the room to the other, but the prank didn’t stop there. 50+ pictures of Guy Fieri filled the back wall of Volzke’s room and computer. They then went and filled hundreds of dixie cups and bowls with water and placed them all over the floor, making it nearly impossible to get to the other side of the room without knocking over a cup or two and spilling water everywhere.

Seniors Luke Shiffers and Aidan Plaehn work on picking up the water-filled dixie cups after pranking Owen Volzke. (Sammy Smith)

This practical joke took weeks to set up, and Barnett even set up a FlipGrid and asked each of his students to put in ideas of what to do. They spent time at the beginning of every class putting down ideas and then narrowing them down until they had the perfect prank. 

A prank like this doesn’t come out of the blue. It all started when Volzke bashed on the bathroom door while Barnett was in there. Barnett said, “You’ll pay, Volzke,” which Volzke shrugged off like it was nothing.  What a huge mistake. 

When Monday morning came around, Volzke came to school expecting nothing at all. After getting his temperature checked and walking to his room, he opened it and was shocked to say the least. He was greeted with no desks, water filled cups, a maze of yarn, and Guy Fieri. Who wouldn’t want to start their week like that?

Go to bit.ly/suckitvolzke to see more pictures of Barnett and his class setting up the prank.  

 

Update and correction:  Barnett used Jamboard, not FlipGrid, with his students to plan their mischief.  In a followup interview, Barnett said, “I would like to add that I pranked him because he was so dismissive of my ability to pay him back.  That was the primary motivation.  Secondary motivation was providing the seniors that I am close to an opportunity to have a little bit of high school fun. ”