Hero Points

Hero Points was a short-lived system that occurred in Larry Mack Junior Middle School. It appears in Hard Luck.

History[]

The Hero Points system was implemented to end bullying and encourage kindness. If a student was seen being kind to someone else, they would be awarded with a Hero Point, and they could be exchanged for prizes, including extra recess, and the homeroom with the most would receive a day off before the summer vacation in June. They were printed in sheets and were separated from each other.

Greg thought it was a great idea, until students started to try to receive Hero Points undeservedly. Soon, many of the kids began to fake good deeds when teachers were present, giving them Hero Points in the process. Eventually, Erick Glick, an older student who furtively sold old school assignments for money got one of the sheets, photocopied it, and sold individual Hero Points during recess for the price of a quarter and an entire sheet for five dollars, and this resulted in other kids creating counterfeit Hero Points themselves. One of them was even selling entire sheets for a quarter.

The teachers grew suspicious after some of the worst students started handing in a considerable amount of Hero Points for extra recess. As a result, the school invalidated all Hero Points printed on white paper and started printing them on green paper instead. However, this didn't deter most copycats, as counterfeit Hero Points in green paper began to circulate, beginning another cycle of counterfeit sheets. The school was left to change to colour of the Hero Points multiple times because of this.

Eventually, the school got tired of this practice and made a rule that only five or fewer Hero Points can be redeemed at once, and any children who tried to redeem more than the amount were given detention, as this would indicate copying. Regardless, the rule was unfair, as Marcel Templeton, one of the nicest kids, was given detention for a month despite earning his thirty-five Hero Points legitimately.

After the janitor discovered one of the secret bases where photo-copies were made, the school shut the Hero Points system down and invalidated all remaining Points. This upset many students, as not only could they no longer sell Hero Points for a profit or exchange any Hero Points for prizes like extra recess, but nobody would get the extra day off in June. As a result, most students stopped doing acts of kindness for the rest of the year such as assisting a boy with a broken leg at lunch because no one wants to do anything nice for free and without a special reward.^[1]