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This day in history: A mass April Fool’s prank had serious consequences for some junior high students

(S-R archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1975: At least 40 Shaw Junior High students walked out of classes as an April Fools’ prank – but their subsequent suspensions were no joke.

They were all suspended for three days in an attempt to show the students – and their parents – that the walkout was “serious.”

Parents were notified of the suspensions and urged to make an appointment to discuss the issue. The students “would be readmitted as soon as they came in to school with their parents.”

The number of affected students was not clear, but one source believed it might have been as many as 100.

Vachel Lindsay, a nationally known poet now living at the Davenport Hotel, agreed to present a poetry recital for hundreds of English teachers who were coming to Spokane for a teachers convention, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. The newspaper also reported that Berthold Beathke, an employee of St. Luke’s Hospital, died after he was crushed in a freight elevator at the hospital. He stopped on the elevator at the first floor “to pick up some cans” when someone pressed the elevator button on the second floor and it began to move. (Spokesman-Review archives)
Vachel Lindsay, a nationally known poet now living at the Davenport Hotel, agreed to present a poetry recital for hundreds of English teachers who were coming to Spokane for a teachers convention, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. The newspaper also reported that Berthold Beathke, an employee of St. Luke’s Hospital, died after he was crushed in a freight elevator at the hospital. He stopped on the elevator at the first floor “to pick up some cans” when someone pressed the elevator button on the second floor and it began to move. (Spokesman-Review archives)

From 1925: Vachel Lindsay, a nationally known poet now living at the Davenport Hotel, was planning his first public appearance in Spokane.

Lindsay had “ been persuaded” to present a poetry recital for the hundreds of English teachers who were coming to Spokane for a teachers convention.

“As well as reading several of his well-known poems, he will be presented in at least one poem-game, a synchronization of the dance and poetry without music, that has attracted for him remarkable criticism throughout the English-speaking world,” The Spokesman-Review wrote.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1882: Outlaw Jesse James is shot and killed by fellow gang member Robert Ford at home in St. Joseph, Missouri.

1948: President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan to rebuild war-torn Western Europe, granting an initial $5 billion in aid to 16 countries.