A school in central Iowa has set a Guinness World Records title for having the most twins. There are 16 sets of twins attending Valley Southwoods Freshman High School in West Des Moines. Elaine Watkins-Miller is a spokesperson for the West Des Moines School District.
She points out that Valley Southwoods houses just one class of students, ninth graders, and has an enrollment of 711 students this year. The school received official notification Tuesday from Guinness Worlds Records that Valley Southwoods now has the title for “Most Twins in the Same Academic Year at One School.”
Watkins-Miller says the oddity wasn’t something administrators immediately recognized. “I mean, certainly, our administrators noticed there were a fair number of twins coming through the door at the beginning of the school year, but they were focused on getting the school year going and classes in session,” Watkins-Miller said.
“One of the parents said, ‘that’s sort of an unusual number and let’s look into that.’ The administrators did…and sure enough, it was a record breaking number.” The 16 sets of twins at Valley Southwoods tops the old record of 13 at Pomperaug High School in Southbury, Connecticut in 2009-10.
Five of the 16 sets of twins at Valley Southwoods are identical twins, while 11 are fraternal twins.