The pulled "Fruit Loop"

Most of us who have known Kent for any length of time have heard this story before. However, while going through a box of memoirs last night, I found an English paper from his Junior year in high school which tells the story in his own words.

Unjustly Punished

by Kent Britten

April 24, 1967

Once in the course of human events a trifle incident resulted in drastic, unjust punishment. The way I recall it, it occurred in third period study hall on a bright, cheery Tuesday morning. The bell had just rung, and I had deposited myself in a seat toward the rear of the room. The student in the seat behind me thought he was pretty smart and pulled the "fruit loop" off my shirt. Acting on impulse, I immediately swung around and hit him on the head. The next thing I knew, the young, gentlemean teacher with his big gruff voice was telling both of us that he would see us in the hall. After entering the hall, the young, gentleman teacher escorted us to the office of Mr. Zee. Arriving at the office, Mr. Zee told us that we must spend the remainder of the day in the office and miss the rest of our classes.

For no more than we did, I feel that we were very unjustly punished. I believe the words that would best describe it are that the young, gentleman teacher and Mr. Zee "made a mountain out of a molehill."

Teachers Notes: It may seem this way to you, Kent, and perhaps you weren't guilty, but put yourself in the place of the teacher trying to keep a study hall quiet. Perhaps the incident was minor, but oftentimes minor incidents grow into major incidents if they aren't checked. Soemtimes too, we all are unjustly punished or too severely punished.