Question: How do you get angsty, indifferent high school kids to raise money for a charity? Beg? Bribe?
Try torture.
A Washington high school is blasting Justin Bieber's song "Baby" on repeat between class periods and during lunch until the student body reaches its goal of raising at least $500. The money will benefit a school for orphans in Ghana, not to mention the sanity of the Tenino High School teens.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The school's torturer is none other than student body president Connor Stakelin, who came up with the idea. He's so dedicated/masochistic that he actually holds the intercom phone up to the stereo for the duration of the pass periods.
Luckily for everyone involved, the school matched and far exceeded its goal, raising more than $960 as of Tuesday. While Stakelin has ceased the school's forced Bieber Fever, he's keeping the fundraiser open.
"Any more we raise would be better for them," Conner told USA Today Network.
Here's hoping Stakelin's public-office ambitions end after graduation. Although imagine what Bieber torture could do on a national level...
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.