Reading teacher Michelle Truppa, left, introduces Kenneth Rassler, principal of the Drum Rock Elementary School in Warwick, to a gym full of howling students during a special assembly. Rassler rewarded students for reading more than 80,000 words during Reading Week by complying with their dares that he dress up as a woman, kiss a horseshoe crab and get hit in the face with cream pies.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer