Times Online- Beaver County schools had their lives “flipped, turned upside down” Thursday morning when a phone greeting involving the theme song from the 1990s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” was taken as a threat. All schools in the county were advised to lock down for about 20 minutes while police searched for a 19-year-old Ambridge Area High School student whose greeting to callers was mistakenly taken as a threat about “shooting people outside of the school.” The actual line from the song is “And all shooting some b-ball outside of the school.” It is unclear from listening to Travis Clawson’s phone message whether he inadvertently twisted the words or it just was misheard by the receptionist from his Sewickley eye doctor’s office who sent the day’s events in motion. The receptionist called the Economy man’s phone to remind him about an upcoming appointment, but Clawson did not pick up and she was sent to voice mail, where his greeting caused her to call Sewickley police, who then contacted Ambridge school officials. When Ambridge passed the information along to local police, a countywide schools lockdown was advised because no one knew where Clawson was, and the 911 response system is designed to notify all schools of a situation. Economy police finally made contact with Clawson late morning and discovered he wasin the guidance office of Ambridge’s high school, which then was swarmed by officers who took him into custody.District Attorney Anthony Berosh said it was determined after listening to the message closely that it did follow the Quincy Jones-penned song and Clawson was released.
Part of me wants to feel bad for the 19 year old high school student who would appear to be the victim of the whitest misunderstanding of all time because all the guidance counseling in the world probably isn’t going to do anything for him, but I just can’t make myself feel that sympathetic for someone who thinks recording a voicemail message is their audition for Def Comedy Jam. There’s a 1000% chance that Travis Clawson is the back in middle school whose voicemail was him saying “Hey” and pausing for five seconds before breaking the news that he’s didn’t actually pick up. Fuck you Travis. It’s 2013. If someone actually takes the time to actually pick up the phone and talk to someone it’s either because a family member is dead or you have an optometrist appointment in the upcoming week. If you really want to pimp out the nostalgia market by quoting shit from the 90s with no context to make yourself feel special make a fucking Twitter account like everyone else.
PS- That misheard lyric has to be more hardcore than anything not-Bad Boys Will Smith has ever said, right?
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