Kansas high school seniors 'prank' principal with bucket full of thanks

This is one prank you can try at school, kids.

Last Wednesday, high school senior Emily Jones told her principal to stand in the hallway, holding an old bucket.

Sherman Padgett, who has been principal at North High School in Wichita, Kansas, since 2006, had reason to be apprehensive, but after some encouragement from his secretary, he went along with her strange request.

He’s glad he did.

Members of the senior class started streaming down the hall, each dropping a note of thanks or praise into the bucket.

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“Thank you for making high school the best years of my life,” one note read.

“You’ve made my first year experience in America one that I will always fondly remember,” read another.

“Thank you for the shirt you gave me,” read another. “When I didn’t have clothes on my back, you provided.”

Some notes, like the one that thanked Padgett for helping a student get treatment for an eating disorder, even caused Padgett to tear up a little.

“Became a little emotional on some of them,” Padgett told KWCH. “I kind of read them and thought, ‘Man, this is better than a paycheque. This is why I do the things that I do.’”

“It’s just the best thing in the whole wide world,” he told the Wichita Eagle. “I couldn’t believe they did this. I couldn’t believe Emily thought a good ‘senior prank’ would be to fill my bucket with these amazing acts of kindness.”

Jones told KWCH that she wanted Padgett to know how much the senior class appreciated him.

“He’s an awesome principal,” she said.

“It’s kind of through him that we get the whole school,” Jones told ABC News. “A lot of the notes are thank you’s for making North an amazing place.”

“When other teachers hear about those thank you’s, they know that they are part of that,” she said.

Padgett continues to receive notes from his students.

“I still can’t believe it,” Padgett told the Wichita Eagle. “It’s the coolest thing ever.”

“We spend a lot of time at North talking about being grateful and the concept of gratitude,” Padgett told ABC News. “It’s made me swell up to see so many kids have an option to express gratitude.”

“It’s been a great experience for me but I’m more amazed at the impact it’s having on the students,” he added. “It’s the old saying that sometimes gratitude benefits the giver more than the receiver.”