Amidst all the seriousness of the realities of dealing with the pandemic of Coronavirus, a UK schoolboy has gone viral and caused many to have a rare laugh over this challenge by figuring out a novel way (excuse the pun) to profit from the situation.
After hearing all the news about the Coronavirus on the news West Yorkshire learner Oliver Cooper, who attends Dixon’s Unity Academy in Leeds, started charging his fellow students for using his hand sanitiser.
The thirteen year old says, “They’ve been going on about the coronavirus and how important hand sanitiser and washing your hands is. So before the bus came, I bought a tub of hand wash from Tesco and offered to it my mates. They gave me the idea that I could charge for it, so I did.Other people at school sell stuff like chewing gum. If somebody wants something, they will pay for it. Loads of people wanted this.”
Cooper made a £7.40 ($9.50) profit, but was ultimately sent home for breaching school rules. His parents, realising the irony of the situation, disciplined him despite also seeing the ingenuity in his business idea.
His mom Jenny Tompkins says, “I don’t think it’s an excludable offence. I told him off so that when we go into school, I can tell his head of year that I have told him it’s wrong.I think they see it as him exploiting a situation, but his step dad called him a legend halfway through me telling him off so that put a stop to it. He’s like my little Del Boy, I won’t be punishing him any further. He’ll do what he has to at school, but that’s it.”
The school also punished Oliver with a day in isolation followed by a two-hour detention, which he branded a ‘ridiculous’ punishment.
He’s also enjoying the profits he made and bought himself a multi-pack of Doritos on his way home from school and planned to spend the rest on a doner kebab for his tea
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