CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- If there is anyplace in West Virginia a kid wants to be, it's school -- ever since administrators began investing in quarter-gobbling video games, officials said.
'We have kids coming in here as early as 7 o'clock in the morning, almost before we have anyone in here to supervise them,' Gene Douglas, principal of suburban St. Albans High School, said.
When Douglas began looking for ways to raise money to purchase a computer center for the school, he decided a couple of Pac-Man machines might be the way to go.
Pac-Man is a game that involves racing a little yellow character around a maze along which he gobbles dots that rack up the points. All the while, the player is trying to keep his gobbler out of the clutches of fuzzy little creatures that pursue him.
Educational? Hardly. But the machines are extremely popular and profitable. Six weeks ago, the school installed two, and they've each been bringing in $6 or $7 a day since.
'Basically, our thinking was we've had a lot of rain and snow and it would give the kids something to do,' Douglas said.
At Herbert Hoover High School in Kanawha County, athletic director Peter Kelly had the same idea for raising money for the school's general fund and its athletic program. So far, Pac-Man hasn't been enrolled, but Kelly says he's working on it.
'Everywhere you go you see these games,' he said. 'It seems that whenever you go in somewhere, there are kids around them. A few years ago, we had a pool table and a pinball machine and things like that in here. So I just thought it would be beneficial for us, it would give the kids something to do, and everybody would be happy.'
Several communities across the country have tried to keep youngsters from pouring their lunch money into the games by posting age requirements at local arcades or attempting to run the amusements out of town altogether.
But neither Douglas nor Kelly think the games pose a threat to teens.
'I've only had about three calls in the six or seven weeks we've had them,' Douglas said. 'If gambling or something came into it, I wouldn't hesitate to remove them.'
Kelly concurred.
'I don't seen any negative aspects ... The Air Force is using these games to improve hand-eye coordination. Besides, the games are accessible to the kids elsewhere anyway,' he said.
