In a biology room in the freshmen building stands a harmless-looking green locker covered in DNA models. But little do most of the students know that there is a real human skeleton hanging inside. Obvious jokes involving closets or tales of misbehaving freshmen immediately come to mind, but after the novelty wears off, several questions beg to be answered.

The skeleton is about 5' 6" tall and was once inside a woman's body. The bones are mostly cream-coloured and battered. Some front teeth are missing and other bones are stuck on to its wire frame with masking tape, but it is still very complete, and even some cartilage has been preserved. Biology teachers Mr. Venckus and Mr. Lessek had little information regarding the person who died and donated (or sold?) their corpse to science, though Lessek had an interesting theory regarding a practice in third world countries. A poor person in the early twentieth century might have agreed to let a company take some of their bodies upon their death to study for scientific purposes in exchange for a modest sum of money while they were alive.

The skeleton's history in Lincoln Park High School is just as sketchy. Ms.Wright and Mr. Venckus remembers it being here since the seventies. They guess the skeleton could have been in a biology room since the school's founding almost a hundred years ago! This was when the school was named Waller High, and the west freshman building did not exist. Still, none of this could be definitely confirmed because no one of Lincoln Park's biology teachers has been working here much more than thirty years. The only clue is inside the locker, where one can find the words that were made by the company that sold the skeleton to the school:

K Venience

No. 1

KNAPE AND VOGT

Grand Rapids

Therefore, the intrigue and mystery doesn't end when you get tired of staring at the bones. The skeleton's story gives insight to the history of school and also to the history of medical education. I suppose the skeleton elicits a little guilt because the remains of a human being might not be given their due respect, what with it being gawked at by a bunch of pimply teenagers and all, but we have to take it in context of the time. It is very probable that the person gave consent to have her bones treated this way. Besides, what else can we at the school do but appreciate the authenticity of the skeleton, and the weirdness of our school?