Gilbert Elementary students tape principal to wall for charity

How much would you pay to duct tape your favorite authority figure to a wall? And what if the proceeds went toward fighting cancer?

Students at Gilberts Elementary School got the chance to do just that Friday. Between gym classes and PARCC tests and snack time, they were pulled out of class to participate in taping Principal Craig Zieleniewski to a wall outside the school office. Over shouts of kids playing hockey in gym class, they spread tape over their principal's wrists and ankles.

"I keep telling them I weigh 240 pounds," Zieleniewski said. "I hope this works."

"They're going to need a lot of pieces of tape," said Hector Recendez, a night custodian.

Community Unit District 300 superintendent Fred Heid, who had the honor of taping Zieleniewski's torso, came up with the idea. He himself had been taped to a wall for a similar fundraiser years ago.

Gilberts Elementary has about 650 students. More than 200 pieces of tape were sold at $2 a piece, totaling more than $500 that will go to the American Cancer Society.

Some kids bought three pieces of tape. A few bought five. Many got the duct tape stuck together or twisted and had to get new strips from Christie Stanek, a second-grade teacher, and Erin Leib, a speech language pathologist. The pair organized the event, calling it "Stick it to Cancer."

Caitlyn Ley, 8, bought three strips. "I'm having fun," she said.

Guido Pigoni, 10, started the day in music class before he got the chance to add five pieces of tape to Zieleniewski's wrists and ankles.

The question on everybody's mind was: Once the platforms under Zieleniewski were removed, would he remain stuck to the wall?

"I'm still not that comfortable," he said, more than halfway through the hour or so it took to tape him up.

At the end of the school day, students filed out to meet their parents and respective buses. Zieleniewski received an ovation for his efforts. Some children gave him high-fives on their way out.

Did the tape hold? Sort of. He half-stood on a roll of duct tape and settled into his sticky, gray cocoon.

"I need more up top," he said. Heid obliged, applying tape to his torso.