Student pays high price for school traffic cone stunt

A student who climbed an 80ft school spire to plant a traffic cone on top has been hit with a £1300 bill. Chris Matthew, 18, scaled the tower at Robert Gordon's College in the middle of the night as a prank.

He stuck the traffic cone and a flag reading "11" on top, to the delight of pupils who arrived at the Aberdeen secondary the following day. But while they called the prank "legendary", school chiefs branded it "potentially dangerous".



Now Chris has left the school "by mutual consent". And his parents have agreed to pay the £1300 bill to remove the traffic cone. But school friends rallied round with an internet appeal to pay the amount and they've already raised more than £1000.

One pal wrote on the website: "Chris has a sum of £1300 to fork out due to the school's inability/ inexperience to scale the building themselves and take the cone down for free." A spokesman for the school said: "Both parties now consider the matter closed."