In what sounds like the opening to a Dr. Seuss book, parents of all 600 children in Mr Gribble's school got a fearful note saying their kids report to class sleepy and distracted, because they're up as late as 4 a.m. playing video games.
Mr Gribble, who teaches primary school in Devon, the U.K., sent the emergency communiqué after questioning his class of 10- and 11-year-olds as to why they couldn't pay attention.
"The Year Six teacher found that some had spent four or five hours on their games consoles the night before," says the BBC, which either has a reporter in sixth grade or was leaked a copy of the memo.
"He said parents seemed unaware how much time pupils were spending gaming," the Beeb wrote.
Three out of four kids said they used some kind of games console every evening, some saying they didn't go to sleep until 0400 GMT. Big deal. That's 11 p.m. EST.
"We're not trying to be killjoys and get everything banned but like many things in life it's about striking a balance," said the teacher with a purely Dickensian killjoy name like Gribble.
Devon teacher writes to 600 parents over computer games [BBC]