This morning, at around 7:15,  a small army of teacher turned smurfs sat idly, side by side in the amphitheatre waiting for the finishing touches on their blue dyed hair.

Walking on campus, students couldn’t believe their eyes.  There, they saw their very own teachers willingly dye their precious head of hair, or for some, just their head, the colors of Rocklin High.  Why, they asked?  Had these people gone insane?   

For the past few years, the staff of Rocklin has upheld a sacred tradition famously known as Free Friday.  The students are given a free BBQ lunch and a free dance.  But, this year, Free Friday had a major twist to it.

    “The administration came to the students last spring and asked them to focus and do their best on the CST testing,” says John Thompson, RHS activities director on campus.

“Administration said if the students reached 900, which was a very aggressive goal, that the male administrations would shave their heads and Mrs. Knox would dye her hair blue.” says Thompson.

But, the students were not able to reach this far-off goal seeing as they would have to improve by a quite miraculous 40 points.  Instead, the students of Rocklin surprised the entire administration by improving by a whopping 20 points.

    Rocklin’s score of 881 was  a truly dramatic improvement. Rocklin maintained a number one rank in Placer county and number two rank in the greater Sacramento Area.  Because of this, the administration felt they needed some way to reward the students for their hard work despite not meeting the far-fetched goal of 900.

    It was then that the administration came up with the idea of voluntarily dying their hair blue on Free Friday.

    “This idea came with the whole package of Free Friday and reward the students,” says Thompson, “and it just shows how appreciative the RHS staff is of the students’ hard-work.”

    Rocklin High students were able to see how appreciative the staff was with this idea and felt truly appreciated for their dedication.

    “I think it was a good way to get people involved, including the faculty members, showing everyone that we are all one family,” says David Cannon, junior, who helped dye teachers’ hair blue.

    At the same time, students had fun dying the teachers’ hair blue adding to the students’ reward.

    “I had fun dying Kimmel’s hair because that was my best work so far,” says Lizzie Rainey, junior, who also helped dye hair blue.

    Students and teachers alike truly enjoyed this twist on Free Friday.

So, no, there was no army of teacher turned smurfs in the amphitheatre ready to ravage the students at will.  It was just a simple way to show students they care, even if that means dying their hair, or head, blue.