School Plays Bieber's 'Baby' As Fundraiser: Students Pay To Make It Stop

A suburban Chicago high school fundraising to save a popular arts center is motivating students to donate with an earsplitting incentive: pay up and they'll stop blasting Justin Bieber's "Baby" during passing periods.

Evanston Township High School seniors Charlotte Runzel and Jesse Chatz convinced school administrators to let them play the popstar's biggest hit over the loudspeakers for one week, or until they'd raised $1,000, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Within three days, students had coughed up enough cash to silence the Canadian singer's repetitive single.

Between Monday and Wednesday, the pop song, which features tween idol Justin Bieber singing the word "baby" 54 times, played through around 20 times in between classes, NBC Chicago reports. The school reportedly rebuffed student complaints, encouraging ETHS kids to play along and donate money to make the music stop.

Boocoo Cultural Center and Cafe, the high school's nonprofit beneficiary, hosts music classes, live performances and entertainment events, and offers computer labs and recording space to the Evanston community. 

"People who work here ... are just incredibly moved by the fact that these kids came to us and wanted to help out," Boocoo’s administrator Alicia Hempfling told the Sun-Times. She says the coffee shop will use the donations to provide free performance spaces for students to give their senior presentations.

SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/school-plays-bieber_n_1150920.html