LAKE COUNTY NEWS SUN (Waukegan, Illinois) 01 November 08 Cold-blooded creatures - Grayslake principal 'was sweating bullets' (Beth Kramer)
Grayslake: Despite his fear of snakes, Grayslake Middle School Principal Marcus Smith held a 14-foot snake in front of about 900 students and faculty members Halloween morning. He was fulfilling a deal he made with the students: If they would read 10,000 pages in the school's first quarter, he would hold a live snake.
"It was different than I thought it would be," Smith said. "I don't know if that phobia has gone away."
Although he felt far from calm, he made a step toward quelling his ophiophobia (fear of snakes) with the help of Jim Nesci, who presented a reptile program titled "Cold Blooded Creatures."
"I'm the Dr. Phil of the reptile world," Nesci said.
Nesci encouraged the school's "fearless leader" to hold the python, telling him that it would look good to add "snake wrangler" to his resume.
"The most misunderstood and most feared of the reptile world are snakes, (but) snakes are marvelous creatures," Nesci said.
He enlisted the aid of five students, who won the right to be onstage helpers in a school drawing.
Austin Woodruff, 13, got to handle the snake and an alligator. The experience was awesome and changed his view of reptiles, he said.
"It was great to see the other side of the story. They're not violent animals," Woodruff, of Grayslake, said.
The python was among the "ambassadors" from the reptile world Nesci presented. Other reptiles included a monitor lizard and an African tortoise. He brought all the animals from home, where they live in his basement.
Ninety percent of his animals were rescued, such as Lucky the alligator, who came from a sewage treatment plant.
"You never really know what's in your toilets, do you, mates?" Nesci asked.
Nesci makes dozens of presentations and has performed at such venues as HGTV, "The Tonight Show" and the "Oprah Show." Nesci has been presenting his program for 31 years.
The Grayslake Middle School students were a good audience, he said.
"They were very respectful and very good listeners," Nesci said.
The students were awarded the assembly for reading over 100,000 pages from the beginning of the school year, which is over 10 times the amount they agreed to read. The reading initiative program awards students a raffle ticket for every 50 pages they read, and awards gift certificates to area businesses as students reach certain levels, such as the 300-page mark.
Over 3,000 more books have been checked out of the school library than this point last year, said seventh grade reading specialist Judy Spector.
"We're very, very proud of our students and their efforts," Spector said.
"They made the effort to try something new. That was fabulous," said science teacher Janis Hauptly.
She described the assembly as a "real learning experience" for the students.
Her favorite moment was seeing Smith up there with the snake.
"He was sweating bullets, facing his fear in front of the school. It takes all the courage you can screw up to do that," Hauptly said.
Cold-blooded creatures - Grayslake principal 'was sweating bullets'