For Principal Keith Peters it was an easy, yet uncomfortable trade off.
Give up his neatly clipped hair for the sake of his students' grades.
On Thursday, the Floranada Elementary School principal went from administrator to punk rocker by shaving his head into a mohawk in front of the entire student body after a bet that the students could take the school from a "B" to an "A" school.
"We didn't want the kids to be too focused on the FCAT so we lessened the stress," Peters said. "I put the pressure all on me and it gave the students something to rally around."
Peters made the bet just before the state's FCAT exams last school. The school had been a B school the past two years.
Peters said he knew the students would make good but he still had to prep himself for the moment when he would watch his locks hit the floor to make way for a spiked do.
A parent of one of the students that excelled on the test did the honors in a school pep rally in front of a raucous crowd of children.
Local
"I want to know what teacher is going to join me up here next?" Peters said after getting out of the barber's chair and prancing around in his new, red-highlighted mohawk.
If all it takes is a little hair-do motivation to inspire student achievement, more principals should be sporting a mohawk soon.
