DEMOPOLIS – As Demopolis Middle School principal Clarence Jackson hurled good-natured taunts at 12-year-old Kristin Beach, she only gripped her softball tighter and glared intently at the dunking booth’s target.

After Kristin’s first throw missed, low and away, her principal kept ribbing her.

“You’re a softball player; you can do better than that,” he said, as the seventh-grader wound up her second throw.

Jackson tried to say something else, but he was cut short, as Kristin found the mark, sending her principal plunging into the vat of cold water.

Her friends crowded around her, patting her back, as Kristin just smiled.

The students of DMS got an early start on the Veterans Day holiday Thursday, as the school sponsored a Fall Festival across the street at the Demopolis High School baseball field. The proceeds will augment grants to buy new science equipment to help the middle school students learn.

Students had the chance to exact revenge on principals, teachers and coaches

in the dunking booth, try for prizes at the ring toss, and enjoy sweet and salty treats from the concession stand. The event, Jackson said, was to raise money to upgrade the school’s science equipment.

Around this time next year, he added, they’ll have another Fall Festival, with the proceeds directed to one of the other core subjects: math, English or social studies, for instance.

“We’re in the process of updating our labs,” Jackson said, wiping away water that continued to drip from his hair.

“How was it?” asked one of the students who’d crowded near Jackson to joke with the dripping principal.

“It was cold,” he said. “I feel like a trout!

“Man, they got me good.”