Skip to main content

Mobile Navigation

  • National
    • Policy
      • High Expectations
      • Quality Choices
      • Personalized Pathways
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Gadfly Newsletter
      • Flypaper Blog
    • Events
    • Scholars Program
  • Ohio
    • Policy
      • Priorities
      • Media & Testimony
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Ohio Education Gadfly Biweekly
      • Ohio Gadfly Daily
  • Charter Authorizing
    • Application
    • Sponsored Schools
    • Resources
  • About
    • Mission
    • Board
    • Staff
    • Career
Home
Home
Advancing Educational Excellence

Main Navigation

  • National
  • Ohio
  • Charter Authorizing
  • About

Ohio Menu

  • Topics
    • Accountability & Testing
    • Advanced Education
    • Career & Technical Education
    • Charter Schools
    • Curriculum & Instruction
    • ESSA
    • Evidence-Based Learning
    • Governance
    • Personalized Learning
    • Private School Choice
    • School Finance
    • Standards
    • Teachers & School Leaders
  • Research
  • Policy
  • Commentary
    • Ohio Gadfly Newsletter
    • Ohio Gadfly Blog
    • Events

Holy devilish deception!

2.21.2007

Perhaps it makes perfect sense that Batman would turn up in a place called Cave Creek. Still, three schools in this Phoenix suburb were placed on lockdown for 45 minutes last week after a Desert Arroyo Middle School student reported seeing Batman (or a person mimicking the Caped Crusader) run across campus, hop a fence, and vanish into the desert. After police combed the dusty landscape and, unremarkably, found nothing, it was determined that the tipster student--whose identity is still shrouded in mystery, although sources suggest he may be a billionaire industrialist and international playboy--had lied. Cave Creek Unified School District spokeswoman Nedda Shafir was upset by the untruth. "I don't know what to say," she said. "I'm at a loss for words." Explaining the district's reaction, Shafir continued: "We're in an area where we're in a desert, and we have to take these reports seriously."

"Student lied about Batman, school says," Associated Press, February 16, 2007

Tags: Phoenix
Fordham Logo

© 2026 The Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Privacy Policy
Usage Agreement

National

P.O. Box 110
Burke, VA 22009

202.223.5452

[email protected]

Ohio

P.O. Box 82291
Columbus, OH 43202

614.223.1580

[email protected]

Sponsorship

130 West Second Street, Suite 410
Dayton, Ohio 45402

937.227.3368

[email protected]