A father from Florida has just given new meaning to the term “helicopter parent.”
Hovering over your kid in an attempt to preserve his well-being is one thing, but hovering over his school in order to impress other students is pushing the envelope a bit.
At least according to police.
Still, Bart Sutherin says he doesn’t regret trying to make his son’s first day of school one to remember… with a helicopter.
According to police, Sutherin thought it would be a grand idea to take his son to his first day of high school in a helicopter. Only he didn’t warn officials that he would be doing so, and ended up making front-page news instead.
Sutherin, who is a registered pilot and father of three, scared the living daylights out of school officials when he landed a Hughes 300 helicopter Monday morning behind some portable classrooms on the east side of the campus, according sheriff’s deputies.
The school’s police liaison officer called the Federal Aviation Administration shortly after the incident and Sutherin is now being interviewed as part of an ongoing investigation into the unscheduled landing.
Responding to the brouhaha, Sutherin reportedly told officials that he had simply wanted to “make a positive impression on the other students.”
Sutherin’s 14-year-old son Joseph, started the ninth grade this week, and mentioned to his pilot pop that it would be “cool” to arrive at school in a helicopter instead of, oh, you know, a boring car or bike.
Joseph says he wanted to brag to his classmates that he “flew into school in a helicopter,” so his dad agreed and rented the copter for the commute.
The kicker to this story is that according to the school’s principal, very few students saw the landing because it took place in a clearing far away from where most kids hang out in the morning.
Of course, now that the story has gone national, every kid in the state is aware of Joseph’s first day of school stunt, so I guess he’s getting the attention he wanted.
How far would you go to impress your kid’s friends?
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