Nearly a year ago Kevin went to school with a gorilla mask tucked into his backpack. His mother didn’t know he was taking it to school or she’d have told him not to.

After lunch period that day, Kevin goes to his locker, gets his mask and puts it on. A few kids see him in the hallway with the gorilla mask on and laugh. Kevin enjoys making people laugh, but we all know that not everybody has a keen sense of humor.

Still wearing the mask, Kevin decides to climb up onto the roof of the school building. Once on the roof, Kevin begins waving at students down below and prances about like a gorilla.

The students who see him laugh and tell others. Soon, there’s a crowd down below cheering at Kevin the Gorilla Man.

One of the observers is a vice-principal in charge of discipline. He’s got a megaphone — and uses it to order Kevin down off the roof.

Another administrator calls the police and orders the school evacuated. It’s not clear who called for all the outside help, but eventually the town police and the Bomb Squad appear on the scene, together with the SPCA and a Paramedic Unit.

After a few hours of talking with a police negotiator, Kevin climbs down from the school’s roof and surrenders. He is arrested, handcuffed and taken to the police station where he is charged with "disorderly conduct" and, school authorities say, "there may be other, more serious charges." There never are.

That was nearly a year ago. Recently, a jury found that the school officials, the police, and the bomb squad "over reacted" to something that was obviously nothing more than a "school-boy prank." The jury noted that Kevin’s actions did not result in harm to anyone. Kevin was found "not guilty" of disorderly conduct, restoring his police record to "spotless" condition.

It’s interesting to note that Kevin the Gorilla Man is now studying architecture at Penn State University.