They did on Monday, anyway, when Principal Julie Palmer handed the reins of the school, 2750 Burton St.
SE, to seventh-grader Kaleen Kortz and her brothers, Will, a fourth-grader, and Ben, a first-grader. The trio, the children of Jeanne and David Kortz, won the nod as the result of a school fundraiser in February. Their grandparents, Shirley Kortz — a former St. Paul’s secretary — and her husband, Gary, had the winning $1,000 bid. The perk: For one day, the siblings got to set their own rules. That meant popsicle giveaways, school-wide “peanut butter and jelly time,” classroom pizza parties and all-school recess. But the Kortz kids did not horde their power. They shared it, making it a a day of empowerment with Kaleen’s idea to designate Monday as breast cancer-awareness day. Last fall, the 12-year-old ran her first five-kilometer (3.1-mile) road race, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, a benefit for breast cancer efforts, with her mother. “Whenever you see all those cancer things, like the runs and the walks and the pledges, you just know it’s something that’s so hard to get rid of, and you think about all those people who are battling it,” Kaleen said.
Even Ben, 7, and Will, 10, were dressed in pink, right down to their fingernails, with polish borrowed from their sister.