Telling the tale of the roosters

Photo by Mark Schantz

This article appeared in the Suncoast News on May 31, 2003.

By VALERIE BERRIOS

NEW PORT RICHEY - Entering the office of Gulf High School Principal Thomas Imerson, a person unfamiliar with the school might assume its mascot is a rooster rather than a buccaneer. Imerson has shelves and tabletops filled with decorative roosters and their female counterparts.

The animals are far from being the principal's favorite. His negative feelings stem from a childhood encounter with an angry hen protecting her chicks.

The rooster collection reveals not only Imerson's sense of humor. It's a source of inspiration to some of his students.

The tale of the roosters began May 24, 1995, when Imerson was an assistant principal at Gulf High. That day he wrote a memorandum that would be sent to all faculty members.

The word ``roster'' was misspelled as ``rooster'' in the memo.

One line of the memo stated that if a student was on the ``rooster,'' teachers should remove the student from the rooster and take it to data entry, where the student would be officially removed from the rooster.

The next day, Imerson, unaware of the error, received a note from his staff that stated, ``I know we're a bunch of clucks but ...''

Someone put a sign on his door declaring, ``The rooster arrives at 6:30.''

During lunch, several faculty members performed the chicken dance for Imerson, who handled the joshing with a good spirit.

After that day, he said, ``It just took off.''

When he became principal at Hudson Middle School in 2000, the story - and the roosters - followed him.

On May 24, 2001, faculty and staff at the school celebrated the anniversary of their leader's goof by dressing up like chickens and farmers.

By the time Imerson returned to Gulf High last year, his collection of roosters had grown steadily with the help of colleagues, family and students.

Some pieces are personalized and others stuffed. There also are antiques from such places as Chile, Portugal and Germany.

Someone gave him a duck so he could keep all his chickens in a row.

``It's been a lot of fun,'' Imerson said.

His error also has been a way of showing students that slip- ups can be viewed in a different light.

``Kids get hung up on mistakes,'' said Lynn Maher, a substitute teacher and Imerson's assistant. ``Mr. Imerson is showing (students) that making a mistake can be turned into a really nice, positive influence.''