Principal Smooches Pig to Reward Kids

After reaching their goal of reading 1.5 million minutes this school year, Peach Hill Elementary School students awaited their prize.

And when 4-month-old Piggy Sue arrived at the kindergarten through third-grade school Friday morning from Party Animals Farms in Moorpark, the students squealed with delight.

After all, it’s not every day that your principal puckers up to a piglet.

“It was gross-looking,” said Shelby Pool, 7. “I wouldn’t have wanted to kiss it, because the pig was hairy.”

But Principal Marilyn Eubanks didn’t think Piggy Sue was so gross. In fact, she kissed it several times, much to the delight of the students who sported faux pig ears and noses for the occasion.

When Eubanks originally agreed to the pig-kissing, Piggy Sue was only a piglet, but during the past four months she ballooned to 80 pounds.

“I wasn’t at all afraid that Piggy Sue would bite me,” Eubanks said. “She warmed right up to me when I started feeding her cookies.”

Eubanks’ lip tango with the pig turned out to be a bigger incentive to the kids to read than she’d thought.

“We are still tallying the minutes, but already the school has read over 2 million minutes,” she said.

Parents who witnessed Friday’s event at the Moorpark school said that enthusiasm will be something the kids will take with them and use later in life.

“For a lot of these kids, reading is a new thing in their lives,” parent Kim DiCecco said. “But it will be the basis for everything they will need in life.”