Story Archive

We Have a Winner

Max Kohll, 11, likes math, and he put it to practical use: he circulated an NCAA tourney pool at Columbian Elementary in Omaha, Neb. He charged $5 to enter: the winner gets half the pot, and second and third place winners get the rest. He bet on the North Carolina Tar Heels and thought he’d win first place for sure — until he was summoned to the principal’s office. “You can’t gamble in school,” Max said he learned from Principal Kathy Nelson, who only gave the boy a talking-to — no suspensions. “It’s like, illegal, sort of,” Max explained. When the principal called Max’s mother, she had to admit she knew about the pool: she had loaned Max the $5 for his own entry. “I make sure I don’t send plastic knives to school in his backpack,” Janet Kohll says, to avoid zero tolerance weapons charges. “I never thought about gambling.” (RC/Omaha World-Herald) ...Then it’s a good thing her wager on the principal’s intelligence paid off.