There’s viral—and then there’s the video that recently dropped on social media platforms of Georgia high schoolers playing the prank of a lifetime on their principal.
51-year-old Bobby Davis of Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School was sitting in his office when someone rushed in saying a fight had broken out in the cafeteria.
Not on Davis’ watch—the principal tore off down the hall. Arriving at the scene, his worst fears were confirmed. There was a ring of students, phones held high in the air, with two kids going at it in their midst.
He quickly pushed his way through the crowd and grabbed a student he knew very well, one who had a history of fighting.
In the phenomenally well-shot mobile video, the tumult of discord dissolved into cheers: “Happy Birthday!” the crowd shouts.
It was Davis’ Birthday. The young man whom he’d grabbed had organized the surprise. It was a bittersweet moment that left Davis jumping up and down, not unlike a child.
De’Zayviun Watkins, 17, told TODAY that principal Davis had changed his life for the better. As a young man of inclinations towards high school football, Watkins was unstable and prone to fights. He struggled with anger, but Davis, who’s also involved with the football team, gradually helped him reconsider what his life might be like, and to discover his empathy for others.
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Time with Davis turned the angry teen into a writer of poetry, a composer of music, and an aspiring auto mechanic. His journey at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe doesn’t have long left, and Watkins wanted to leave an unforgettable mark on his mentor.
For his part, Davis, who also spoke with TODAY, said that students know when figures of seniority don’t care about them, and that the only way to ensure they have the right environment is to treat them with compassion.
“If your kids don’t feel like they’re loved and respected, they’re not going to learn,” he says. “If they don’t feel safe, they’re not going to learn. You got to know your kids for who they are. They know if you really don’t care.”
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To wit, while Watkins repeatedly referred to himself as a “bad kid” Davis never conceded that point, calling him “a great kid.”
“He single-handedly changed me for the better and he knows I could never take it for granted,” Watkins wrote in a comment on the viral video.
WATCH the priceless video below…
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