Reggie really disliked his Principal

Looking back on Reg's High School years, I think I would have to say that he had an obsessive dislike of his Principal, Mr. McNevin.  Mr. McNevin was a nice guy, but he had nothing in common with what Reggie liked, and hhe probably was expecting that Reggie could be a model student, which is the opposite of what Reggie would want to become.  Looking back, we feel really bad about the abuse that he gave to Mr. McNevin.

Skipping Class
Reggie, quite often showed up late or skipped skipped class.  He managed to conceal his abscences from class by intercepting the mail from the High School intended for his parents, such as the following letter from the Principal. My parents thought it was nice that Reggie would volunteer to get the mail every morning, but he really had an ulterior motive!

The lack of response from my parents frustrated Mr. McNevin, but they really had no idea there was an issue.

• March 28, 1983 pg1 March 28, 1983 pg1
• March 28, 1983 pg2 March 28, 1983 pg2
• June 9, 1983 June 9, 1983
•  

Tormenting the Principal
But I was also a practical joker in high school.  I used to use the mail a lot for my pranks.  I would go to the drug store and take the subscription cards out of the magazines and put someone else’s name and address on them and send them off.  My high school principal [Greg McNevin] had a name that he didn’t like – “Hymie”.  I think it was from an old tv show [Get Smart] about a robot.

Anyway, the high school had hundreds of dollars of subscriptions coming addressed to Hymie.  I was a suspect in this case, I suppose because I was involved in all the trouble that went on in our school.  “Hymie” took me out of class one day.  He wanted to compare my handwriting with the writing on the subscription card that one of the post office workers had given him (The investigation was on). It was quite obvious to me and I would think anyone else that whoever had filled out the card had printed with his other hand.  Hymie couldn’t make the match and I was released, with a smile on my face and a gain in my ‘outlaw’ reputation.  This was only one of many encounters with Hymie and I came out ahead.

The followng are a few other run-ins with Mr. McNevin that family and friends recalled:

Graduation Fee
During his time in High School, Reggie developed an outlaw reputation through his notorious tormenting of High School staff, in particular, the High School Principal, Greg McKevin, who was maliciously nick-named "Hymie", after the character in the TV show "Get Smart", by the students.

Everything he did was calculated to aggravate Mr. McNevin, and one of the most memorable was the following:  Students were required to pay a $20 fee for graduation, to cover the costs associated with the ceremony.  Most students would pay with a few bills, such a $5, $10 or a $20, not Reggie.  Reggie looked at this fee as one of his final ways to torment the principal, so he went to the bank and got $20 worth of pennies, which were nicely packaged in 40 rolls by the bank.  Reggie unrolled all the rolls and put the pennies in a shopping bag.  He knocks on the Principals door, tells the Principal that he is there to pay his graduation fee, and then proceeds to drop a shopping bag full of pennies on top of the Principal's desk.  The Principal says "what is this?", and Reggie proceeds to explain that he is paying his graduation fee.  The Principal protests, but Reggie tells him that pennies are legal tender and then leaves the office.  Reggie said that the Principal turned extremely "red" and then proceeded to "explode".

Graduation Ceremony
At graduation, he did something that completely embarrassed the family, when he accepted his diploma from Principal McNevin, he did not shake his hand and gave him the finger. My parents remarked that they had never been so embarrassed in their entire lives. Although, they noted that 22 years later, with the graduation of Steven, Reggies’s son with a full scholarship valued at $100,000 to the Royal Military College, they were very proud.]