Student pulls off prank of the year on unsuspecting professor

A Michigan college student may have pulled off the best April Fools’ prank of the year by exploiting her professor’s cell phone policy.

Stephen Barrows, a macroeconomics professor at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., has a strict cell phone policy: If your phone rings, you answer it in front of the class, on speakerphone.

In a YouTube video viewed 3.5 million times since it was posted Saturday, he makes one of his students answer her phone and quickly realizes the situation is going downhill for him in a big way.

“Hi, this is Kevin from the Pregnancy Resource Center,” the caller says. “Per your request, I’m calling to inform you that the test results have come back positive. Congratulations!”

Barrows realizes he’s made a huge mistake and tells the student she might want to get off the phone. But the caller continues, making an awkward situation even worse by explaining that resources are available for the mother since the father is no longer around.

A mortified Barrows apologizes after the phone call, but his student says it’s OK — she already knows what she wants to name the baby: April will be her first name, Fool will be her middle name.

Barrows found the prank hilarious, but probably laughed a bit harder knowing he wasn’t facing an awkward talk with school officials later that day.

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Contact Stephanie Grimes at sgrimes@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @stephgrimes