How did the oversized rooster cross the road? Actually, it crossed over to Liberty High. What’s an oversized rooster doing at our school?

One day, right in front of her classroom, Roger had appeared and raised eyebrows from every student and teacher at Liberty. As fast as it raised questions, it quickly brought attraction and popularity.

“The speech and debate students just took Roger as their own and decided he was going to be our mascot. He was originally given to me by students and the fact that kids saw him and thought of me – when I left my other school [Warrenton] – it was really important to me that he comes with me,” Franke said. “He really just symbolizes relationships with students and making people feel welcome, and knowing that there’s always a safe place to go. It’s just a good conversation piece and it brings people in. Sometimes, people just need something to smile about and that’s what Roger does.”

Roger’s journey of how he got to Liberty and more importantly, ended up on Ms. Franke’s doorstep is both amusing and spontaneous.

“My students thought my whole background story with the chicken was hilarious and one kid was at a flea market in Columbia, Missouri and he just happened to see it,” Franke said. “He texted a bunch of kids that were in my classes and decided that they should get this for me. They all chipped in $3-4 for the chicken and paid $150 for it. There were 20 kids that chipped in and they brought it home in a Honda SUV and left it in my classroom on my desk.”

Junior Julia Deters, one of the members of speech and debate here at Liberty, recalls the story behind Ms. Franke’s interest in chickens. 

“It started with her neighbor – they had one ceramic rooster in their kitchen and it had a stage light shine over it, and [Franke’s] stepmother thought it was really funny so she started hiding chickens around the house to see if Ms. Franke would notice and then it became a thing between the two of them,” Deters said. “Eventually, she told her students about it and her students loved it so they ended up finding Roger. It’s also our mascot for speech and debate. We just felt like it was right, especially since he’s right outside the door. It was perfect.”

Freshman Maddie Abernathy remembers the day when she first saw Roger the rooster and how unusual it was for her.

“I noticed it right off the bat. I saw it on the first day of school with my friends and thought it’s kind of weird. I was like, ‘Oh, there’s a chicken there… okay. It was funny,’” Abernathy said.  

Franke’s students at Warrenton had given her the most comical yet random gift but little did she know how much of an impact it would have on future students.

“Next Monday, we’re going to start moving him around the building. There’s going to be a selfie contest so whenever you find him, there’s going to be a piece of paper from the speech and debate team – it’s just PR to get people to know what it is,” Franke said. “There’s an Instagram contest too – one for the cutest picture, the most spirited picture, and the craziest picture. Then, whoever wins, will get something silly.”

Ever since Roger’s first day of school, he’s gotten very popular either from strange stares or funny moments from all students. Bringing Roger to Liberty has united the students together to participate more in spirit days and make the school, in general, more lively.