TENNERTON — Charitty Boyles and Brittany Boyles — sisters and Buckhannon-Upshur High School students — pulled off a successful senior prank Thursday.
They decorated the police cruiser belonging to Cpl. Rocky Hebb of the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department with colorful balloons.
But although siblings, along with friends, Shyla Duke and Jessica Linger, did the decorating as a prank, the gratitude behind the gesture was anything but a joke.
In addition to balloons scotch-taped on the cruiser, there were notes attached.
One said, “You ROCK(Y)!” while another, more poignant one read, “Thank you for making my high school life better, Brittany.”
Hebb is the Prevention Resource Officer at B-UHS and as such, frequently lends a listening ear to students who are struggling with issues at school or home. Many teachers and administrators have stated publicly that students often feel more comfortable talking with Hebb and other PRO officers than educators.
That turned out to be true in the case of the Boyles sisters, senior Brittany Boyles said.
“I’ve had a rough year, and Rocky’s been there for us a lot, so we thought, ‘let’s get him.’ Everyone’s doing a senior prank. Well, me and Shyla are seniors and today might be my last day here. So I asked my sister, ‘Hey Charitty, do you want to come and help?’ and she said yes, so we decorated it.”
“He’s there for students that are struggling real bad,” Brittany added. “Me and my sister [were going through some hard times], and he was the only one that understood us.”
“He listened to us more than anybody,” Charitty, a junior, said.
According to the girls, Hebb had caught them decorating his cruiser when they were halfway finished.
“He was like, ‘what are you all doing?'” Brittany said, with a laugh. “And I said, ‘just let us finish,’ and he said, ‘OK, sure,’ so we got to finish it.”