Principal Kisses Frog to Reward Students

Principal Carol Brown puckered her lips, closed her eyes and slowly inched closer to her target.

Suddenly, she pulled away and dramatically scrunched up her face. The school’s students laughed, but they made sure to hold her accountable.

“Do it! Do it! Do it,” they chanted.

They screamed and laughed as Brown finally laid a smooch on a large frog and immediately backed away, shaking her head and waving her hands.

The epic kiss was set in motion in August when students began a catalog sale fundraiser. Brown vowed to kiss a frog if students raised $10,000 in sales.

“It was my PTA’s idea,” Brown said. “I never thought it was going to happen.”

But it happened. Students surpassed their goal, raising more than $11,000 through the end of September.

“I wish I had said ‘No,’ but it’s for the kids, and I think this idea is what got them to raise money,” Brown said. “I’m very excited because the money goes back to the kids, and it’s worth it if I have to kiss a frog just for a second.”

Fifth-grader Hannah Arnold said the promise of Brown’s frog kiss was indeed one of the things that motivated her to sell items from the catalog. She had a lanyard full of frog key chains to show for her ambitious sales.

“If you sold more than 25 items you got these, and I sold 27,” Hannah explained.

She said she thought her principal’s pending display of gratitude was “cool.”

“I never would kiss a frog,” Hannah said.

Brown said she wasn’t wild about the idea either. She had gone to the MAC cosmetics store at International Plaza the night before to buy waterproof lip-gloss in preparation.

“The lady in the store told me nothing can penetrate it,” she said.

In a pink dress with a pink feather boa, princess crown and wand, Brown stood on the school’s stage and watched fourth-grade teacher Jason Calkins pick the frog up and out of its glass tank.

Jaws dropped and shrieks erupted as Calkins held the frog high over his head for all to see. Students covered their eyes, held hands or squirmed in their seats as Brown planted her kiss on the frog’s back.

Brown told the students they had done a great job raising money for the school.

Later, she also said the frog kiss inspired students to check out frog-related books from the library and research and write about frogs in the classroom.

“It was definitely worth it to see the smiles on the kids’ faces,” she said, repeatedly wiping her lips with a tissue. “They did give me the courage to do it.”