On September 21 and October 17, Algebra and Trigonometry teacher Andrew O’Keefe organized hide-and-seek events for high school staff. The goal was to find O’Keefe in the fifteen minutes after school ends between 2:30 and 2:45 for a gift card prize money.

    O’Keefe sent out complex clues on the day of the first event, Sept. 21, to staff which alluded to where he was hiding. The clues were written out as follows (answers are included): 

The fifth prime / Na / The Texas Chain Saw Massacre = 11/11/1974: Leonardo DiCaprio, actor, auditorium 

Days of Christmas / Bill of Rights / MLK prize = 12/10/1964: Bobby Flay, chef, kitchen

Father of the Constitution / Patrick Mahomes / Frederick III crowned = 04/15/1452: Leonardo da Vinci, artist, art room.

   O’Keefe explained that he added in the aspect of clues only the night before but it quickly became an integral part of the event. 

     “I wanted to give the locations of where I could potentially be hiding so I did that through famous people. I knew I was going to hide in one of these three spots but I didn’t know which spot I would be able to get to in time and during eleventh period without being seen. I didn’t want someone to watch me go there. There were some teachers who were joking, ‘I’m going to have a student tail you.’ I wanted to narrow down the search because they only had fifteen minutes and they were sprinting. Teachers were sprinting around the building.” O’Keefe stated.

     O’Keefe explained how the new building principal, Amanda Murray, has made school spirit and pride one of her goals this year and he wanted to do something to help boost morale.

     “Mr. Yeagley, one of the new assistant principals, we were talking about fun ideas for the staff to boost morale and school spirit and that was one of the ideas that we discussed, and then I twisted it a little and took it and ran with it,” O’Keefe stated.

     Freshman English and creative writing teacher, Emma Walkinshaw was heavily invested in the hide-and-seek event.

     “I’m way too competitive to let this slide. As soon as I heard we were doing it I was like ‘Oh bet, I’m one hundred percent participating,’” Walkinshaw expressed.

     September 21 event had a prize money amount of 25 dollars in gift cards, but when no one found him hiding underneath Joshua’s kitchen sink, the money doubled and was added to the Oct. 17 event where he hid in the janitor’s closet. This time O’Keefe was found by Jessica Merrill in four minutes.

     Many of the staff were very involved with the clues, even getting students to help decipher and get more information out of O’Keefe. 

     Colin Martau, an American History and AP World History teacher, expressed, “I didn’t even care about the money, I just wanted to solve the riddle.”

     Martua spent a lot of time attempting to decode the clues.

     “Anytime I had that day that wasn’t instructional time with kids whether it was my planning or my lunch, I was legit spending trying to solve these clues because I wanted to be the one to find him,” Martua said.

     He also stated that some of O’Keefe’s students were so intrigued by the riddles that they wanted to help him solve them, even going as far as using Trigonometry to decode the clues. 

     Walkinshaw took a different approach to solving clues, expressing that she “tried not to think about what goes through his brain.” 

     As teachers kept getting information from O’Keefe’s students a rumor spread and they began to think some were being fed false information to make the game more interesting. 

     O’Keefe cleared up this theory stating, “A bunch of classes were working on the riddle and trying to get information out of me throughout the day. I did not lie to anybody.”

     A popular strategy many of the staff adopted was splitting up into groups. Both Walkinshaw and 

Martau used this approach, as Martau explained, “I had multiple groups, I was like on ‘Survivor’ trying to form alliances, I was working with [Ms.] Kester, I was working with Mr. Budd, I went and talked to Ms. Keyser, and it became a whole competition where we were trying to figure it out.”

     Activities like a hide-and-seek can be very beneficial for bringing colleagues together and creating a better working environment, and when the staff has a good working environment it directly translates to the students, and their learning environment.

      “It gets us excited for things throughout the day, I think sometimes you get into the routine of school and everything is kind of mundane and that’s true for students too, so having an activity like that would force you to use your brain to solve a puzzle but also be physically active and go around the building trying to find him,” Martua observed.

     As Murray set out to achieve this year, the staff morale has been raised just simply from a small event like a staff hide-and-seek.

     O’Keefe believed the event was a success, bringing staff together and creating a fun activity to look forward to.

     O’Keefe reflected, “I thought everyone had a good time with it. It was fun, people were laughing and meeting other teachers who they didn’t even know while they were out running around and searching.”

     With O’Keefe not being fo​und in the first event it left staff wanting to find him even more. 

     “The fact that I’m way too competitive and the fact that we ended up with him winning. We need someone to find him. If this continues on with no winner I’m going to lose it,” Walkinshaw admitted.

     For those hoping events such as the hide-and-seek’s will continue are in luck, because O’Keefe disclosed possible future ideas.

     “We have some other things in the works right now. Another idea we’re talking through is a staff scavenger hunt,” O’Keefe suggested

     Overall, Martau agreed that these hide-and-seek events boosted staff morale and “gave us an opportunity to do something together and collaborate and be excited about something that ultimately was a no-pressure, just have fun situation.”