Radio station’s April Fool’s prank panics parents

By Jean Reid Norman

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 | 6:40 p.m.

A radio station's April Fool's prank had the Clark County School District reassuring worried parents that they will not be asked to pay tuition to send their children to public schools.

The morning show on KVEG 97.5-FM announced a fake story that alleged parents would be asked to pay $100 a month to send their children to elementary school and $250 a month to send them to high school beginning this week, School District spokesman David Roddy said.

Schools and School District offices were flooded all morning with calls from parents asking about the report, Roddy said.

The School District's Communications Office called the radio station to ask that the report be stopped, but instead the station embellished the story, he said. DJs began saying that the School Board said the cost was decided and nothing could be done about it. None of it was true, said Roddy, who listened to a portion of the show.

The Communications Office put a statement on its Web site letting parents know that the report was false, calling it "a misguided April Fool's stunt by a media outlet."

The statement was taken off the Web site about midafternoon, when the calls to the School District stopped, he said.

It was not only a trick, but it was unkind, Roddy said.

"If you look at this in terms of the impact on parents, with the economic conditions and so many families struggling and stressed, that created a situation of unnecessary stress and panic among a lot of parents," he said. "That's not being responsible to the audience they serve."

Repeated calls to station management were not returned.