The late Rita Greenfield showed a great sense of humor after accidentally ingesting marijuana in 2006. Photo by Can Turkyilmaz/Story by Keri Mitchell/And that design, though!
With the retirement announcement from Lake Highlands High School Mayor Karen Clardy earlier this week, we were reminded of one of LHHS’s most infamous occurrences. When two pranksters from another school delivered pot-laced muffins to the school offices, it became a federal case, literally — the conference room soon filled with representatives from local agencies including Dallas Police, North Texas Regional Drug Enforcement Task Force, Dallas Fire-Rescue, Food and Drug Administration, Dallas County Health and Human Services and the FBI, because of fears someone had tampered with commercially prepared food.
With someone other than then-principal Bob Iden and assistant Clardy in place, the incident might have been shushed, but these two have a fantastic sense of humor, and once it was clear that no one was seriously injured (save the near-futures of the young men charged with the prank), the leaders joined right in with the late night talk show hosts cracking jokes.
As Keri Mitchell wrote in this 2007 piece, “The Day Miss Rita Got The Munchies,”The switchboard operator at Lake Highlands High School — better known as “Miss Rita” to the staff and students — became the most celebrated victim of what has come to be known as ‘the muffin prank.’ Of the 19 high school employees who ingested the pot-laced muffins delivered to the school, Greenfield took the hardest hit … For the record, 87-year-old Rita Greenfield answers quickly when asked if the marijuana muffins she ate last May marked her first experience with drugs. ‘Heaven forbid, yes!’ Greenfield laughs. ‘I never thought at the age I was that I would be trying marijuana. I don’t want to experience it again,’ she says, ‘because I may not be so lucky the next time.'”
We lost Miss Rita in November 2013; she was in her mid 90s by then. Bob Iden also retired, but he is still a very active member of the Lake Highlands neighborhood.
A more-recent photo of Rita Greenfield and Bob Iden
The pranksters faced serious criminal charges but eventually received probation, and both went on to graduate with honors from the University of Texas. Culprit Ian Walker’s mom Caroline Walker published an Amazon e-book in 2006 entitled “Epiphany in Ordinary Time” about the family’s struggle with the consequences of the, ahem, Baking Bad incident.
