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Weber High Wins Jessica / Text-message blitz brings singer to high school in radio contest
By DI LEWIS & JANAE FRANCISSee a video of Jessica's Monday visit:
(Updated 10:17 p.m.)
PLEASANT VIEW -- "Keep texting for Jessica!" was the mantra repeated by many Weber High School students throughout the last week. And it worked.
Actor/singer Jessica Simpson made a brief Monday morning appearance for an audience of 1,800 at Weber High as the prize for the winning school in a K-Bull 93 FM texting contest.
Weber beat out second-place Fremont High School by about 250,000 texts, coming in the winner with a total of 571,795.
Pat Garrett, afternoon deejay for K-Bull, said the station got more than 1 million texts.
"It's absolutely amazing. We've got moms over here saying, 'We want to see her, too. We're paying the bills,' " Garrett said.
While senior Liz Jessop said she thought the contest was more about beating rival Fremont High than seeing Simpson, she was still excited.
Senior Jonathan Androtti said, "We hate Fremont and (Simpson's) hot."
Simpson arrived at 11:30 a.m. to talk to student body officers and the two most prolific texters, then moved to the gym, where the rest of the student body greeted her with a deafening roar.
Several members of the media were frustrated at being shut out of the school by Simpson's staff after having been told by the radio station that they would be allowed into her presentation.
In her trademark Texan drawl, Simpson fielded a few questions from students, giving answers that could barely be heard above the cheering.
She talked about high school, dealing with public scrutiny with the help of family, friends and faith, her move to country music, and her relationship with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.
"I just like ridin' in the car and talkin' and pullin' over and kissin'," she said, when asked about her most exciting date with Romo.
A handful of students received hugs and kisses on the cheek from Simpson. She laughed after giving one boy a hug, saying, "I think he's shaking."
Students were shown the video for Simpson's latest single "Come on Over," from her new country music album, which Simpson calls her "best album yet."
About 25 minutes after she entered the gym, Simpson was ushered out again.
Senior Kylie Spilker was the second-place texter with more than 18,000 texts in the last week.
She said Simpson's visit was "way cool" and the time she spent texting between classes, at lunch and at home was worth getting a hug from the superstar.
However, Spilker said she had to be "very sneaky" to avoid getting her phone confiscated under the school's classtime cell-phone ban.
"I love her. I mean, she's just about the prettiest lady in the world."
Josh Naylor, a Weber junior, sent more than 23,000 texts to propel himself to first place so he could meet Simpson.
Both Naylor and Spilker said unlimited texting plans were key to their success.
But even with the flood of messages pouring into K-Bull, teachers said they didn't really think the contest distracted students.
Don Kenyon, who teaches business, said most teachers kept the school's cell-phone ban in place during the last week, but a few allowed students to send texts if they were for the contest.
Special-education teacher Connie Perry said she thinks more phones were taken away from students in the last week than during any other time.
"We see that (Simpson's visit) as a spectacular, fun way for Weber High to kick off Homecoming Week," said Weber School District spokesman Nate Taggart, "but it's not the type of distraction we'd want to occur on a regular basis."
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Updated 2:10 p.m.
PLEASANT VIEW -- "Keep texting for Jessica!" was the mantra repeated by several Weber High School students throughout the last week. And it worked.
Actor/singer Jessica Simpson made a brief appearance at Weber High this morning as the prize for the winning school in a K-Bull 93 FM texting contest. Weber beat out second-place Fremont High School by about 250,000 texts, coming in winners with a total of 571,795.
Simpson arrived at 11:30 a.m. to talk to student body officers and the two highest texters, then moved to the gym where the rest of the student body greeted her with deafening cheers.
She fielded questions from a few students, talking about things like her faith and relationship with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, and showed the video for her new country music single "Come On Over."
About 25 minutes after she entered the gym, she was ushered out again.
Senior Kylie Spilker was the second-place texter with about 18,000 texts in the last week and a half.
Spilker said she texted between classes, at lunch and at home, but the effort was worth getting a hug from Jessica Simpson.
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Updated at 7:30 a.m.
Weber High School wins visit from Jessica Simpson
PLEASANT VIEW — After more than one million text messages, Weber High School has won a contest to host an assembly with superstar Jessica Simpson.
Radio station K-Bull 93 announced the results of their High School Hook-up with Jessica Simpson contest this morning during their Johnson & Johnson morning show.
Simpson will be appearing at the school, 3650 N. 500 West, during an assembly this afternoon at 11:30 a.m. to celebrate the release of her new country single “Come on over”, organizers said.
Participants in the contest were asked to send a text-message with the word "Jessica" and then the name of their school.
Weber eclipsed Fremont and Lehi high schools in the vote count with more than half a million texts.
Final vote count --
Weber High School 571,795
Fremont High School 324,633
Lehi High School 108,720
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High schools vie for celebrity visit
Superstar Jessica Simpson may be visiting a Top of Utah high school today.
Weber High and Fremont High were the top contenders for her visit as of Sunday in a texting competition sponsored by Utah radio station K-Bull 93.
The winning school will have an assembly with Simpson at 11:30 a.m. today.
The announcement will be made by K-Bull 93 on the air at 7:15 a.m. during the commute to school. But on Sunday, students at both Fremont and Weber thought Weber High would be the winner.
Students said the contest brought the rivalry between the two schools to a head.
"To some kids, it was, 'Who cares about getting Jessica Simpson there? It's more about beating Fremont,' " said Chase Summers, a Weber High senior from North Ogden.
Simpson, 28, is an American pop singer and actress who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits and has three gold and two multiplatinum Recording Industry Association of America-certified albums.
Simpson also starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica."
Weber High students interviewed by the Standard-Examiner said they are sure they have won the contest because they were ahead by 200,000 texts Friday, but contest officials told the newspaper that the count continued throughout the weekend.
Rumors abounded between students at the rival schools about school officials giving their students an unfair advantage.
Some Weber High students even think Fremont High is benefiting from a "supercomputer."
Fremont High students say Weber High officials allowed their students to have an assembly during which all they did was send texts.
"That's not true," said Jordan Garner, student body vice president at Weber High School, which he said led the contest by more than 100,000 texts for several days.
"We didn't do any of that at all."
Twice, with five minutes left at school, Garner said, student officers made classroom announcements reminding students to send as many texts as they could.
"We said everyone can do this," Garner said. "Everyone kicked it into gear, and we were ahead by 100,000 the whole time."
Garner said Simpson's visit would make a big difference for his school because today is the beginning of Homecoming Week.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so excited," he said.
Weber High student body Vice President John Moore said everyone at the school is excited about the contest, even the teachers.
"We just sent texts a lot, even during school," he said. "We were down by 6,000 texts on Thursday. The first day, we got 100,000 texts in, and the second day, we got 100,000."
Moore said teachers were careful about encouraging students to send texts during school but keeping from getting into trouble with administrators.
"They said, 'Send texts, but if the administration comes by, I didn't tell you to do it,' " he said.
Summers was among those Weber High students sending as many texts as they could.
"People with BlackBerries were sending 100 messages at a time," he said. "They would just program their whole send list.
"The negative thing with that is, every message you sent, you got a message back saying thanks for entering. A lot of kids have inboxes full of thank-you-for-entering messages."
Fremont High junior Ethan Maw, of Plain City, said Weber High School students and teachers shouldn't be so quick to assume the prize is theirs. He said Fremont students were texting en masse over the weekend.
"We heard that Weber was ahead by tons and tons," he said. "We were kind of shocked by it, and then we sent more and more texts."
Fremont High junior, Cory Orme, of Harrisville, said students who attended a cross-country meet last week spent their entire commute sending texts for the contest.
"Some of my other friends were texting during school," he said.
He also saw some encouragement from student body officers.
"We have announcements and stuff, and sometimes they would announce what was going on," he said.
Fremont High senior Brayden Gramse, of Harrisville, said student officers ran down the halls saying, "We're in first place today."
Gramse said he was concerned when he heard from some Weber High students that their teachers would allow students to send texts during classes.
"Most teachers at Fremont were not really into it," he said.
Gramse said technology on his phone would allow him to send 20 texts at once.
"I probably sent 5,000 or 6,000 votes," he said. "Someone said you could send 500 texts at once from a Web site, but I never figured that out."
Fremont High junior Curtis Hartley, of Farr West, said he didn't believe the contest was real at first but then it caught on with students, including himself. He sent some messages Sunday.
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it was cool to see a celebrity but the biggest issue for me was beating fremont.
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