BRATTLEBORO — In what was a surprise to staff at the local parochial school, students at St. Michael School pried a combination of white, red, green, and blue gum off the pews on Friday.
“We're going to forgive them,” Thies said, praising the students for taking “a community minded approach to cleaning the pews.”
Chewing gum is against school policy, but some students speculated that the gum might have been on the pews when they were placed in the chapel at least five years ago.
“[My friends and I] were bored, so we decided we wanted to help the school and clean by prying gum off the pews in the chapel,” said Ava Cutler, a sixth grader at the school.
“It was a shock,” said Bethany Thies, a member of SMS administration.
“There was some that was even chewy,” Ava added, a tinge of disgust in her voice. But, she said, “most of it was hard, and I'm not even sure why people would be chewing gum in the chapel.”
“Of all the places you could stick gum, why all the pews in the chapel?” Thies asked.
Although Tristan Paligo, a seventh grader, said that students accumulated a bucket of the gum, Ava disputed that account, asserting that only a “napkinful” was collected.
One student took a more philosophical approach to the gum fiasco.
“It opens the minds of other students to not put gum under things, because it's hard to take off,” said Westerly Gooley, another seventh grader.