Asbestos related high jinx
When I was in the 6th form, our common room was one of those pre-fab classrooms (we called them rabbit hutches I think) which were supposed to last 5 years but were normally used for about 30.

One day these 2 machines appeared in there that were sat on tables and seemed to be sampling the air. Without thinking about it (which in hindsight would maybe have been a good idea) a friend and I broke some small pieces from a board that sat behind a radiator and looked just like the asbestos mats we used to put under our bunsen burners in chemistry lessons and proceeded to crumble them into the intake parts of the machines. Once nothing happened (not sure what we expected - alarms maybe) we got bored and went off to our lessons and then I went home to lunch.

About an hour later I got a frantic call from the friend. He had come back from lunch to find the door to the common room boarded shut with yellow 'hazard' tape plastered all over it. There was a sign warning us not to enter the building otherwise due to the detection of hazardous materials.

Due to the lethally high levels of asbestos that had been found in the air, the building had been immediately shut and condemned. Over the next few weeks, all 6th formers were tested for exposure to asbestos and the authorities were amazed that no-one had been affected seeing as there were such high levels in the atmosphere inside that room.

A week later the area was cordoned off and demolition began and within another week there was no trace of it left apart from the bare patch of earth where it had once stood.

I spent the next 6 months convinced we would be found out and slung into juvy. Luckily no-one grassed and we got away with it (despite the presence of lots of pesky kids).

After I had left I found out that they had then built a brand-spanking new common room so everyone was quids in (ok apart from the tax-payer maybe).

That was pretty much the most stupid thing I did at school.
(Tom Jones's Mojo Hasn't had any since, Fri 9 Sep 2011, 14:54, 1 reply)

Sounds like you did everyone a favour.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 9 Sep 2011, 19:47, closed)