CHUBBUCK, Idaho — Students at Chubbuck Elementary have an uncanny knack for multiplication.

The school has 14 sets of twins and two sets of triplets. And if that isn't enough, four staff members have twins.

Principal Jann Herdt said in her 15 years on the job, she's never seen anything like it.

"We're close to having a multiple in every classroom," Herdt said, smiling and shaking her head.

Some of the twins have the staff seeing double, especially Dana Westwood, who may have Karma to thank.

Westwood, whose identical twin, Jana, teaches fourth grade in Rigby, has three sets of identical twins in her classes — two sets in the morning and one in the afternoon. She can't tell them apart.

Luckily, since the new school year just started last week, they still wear name tags.

She hopes they don't pull one over on her by switching places like she and Jana did to their grade school teachers. Of course, if they do, there's always the possibility their classmates will intervene.

"Our friends could tell us apart and they'd rat us out," Westwood said, adding that so far, the twins in her classes are quick to correct her when she mixes them up.

Two of the sets are female and the other is male. The boys' parents help by dressing them differently each day. With the girls, however, things aren't quite that simple. One twin in each set wears a pink shirt and the other a blue shirt.

Stacy Haber has triplets in her kindergarten classroom. The girls are not identical, but the fraternal twins look a lot alike, so she's developed a formula to keep them straight.

"Samantha has the freckles. Allison's hair has a little more red tint to it, and Brooklyn reminds me of her older sister, Maryssa, who was in my class a couple of years ago," Haber said.

Identical twins Brittney and Brianne Hickman discovered the thrill of changing places a couple of years ago. Like Westwood, when the third graders switch in school, their friends give them away.

But at home it's a different story.

"Our mom can't tell us apart most of the time," Brittany said. "We don't try to fool her, but she gets our names wrong."

"She gets frustrated," Brianne added.

While eating lunch in the staff lounge Thursday, DeeDee Pattie, a teachers' aide, listened intently as her colleagues recounted their experiences with the multiples.

When they finished, Pattie shook her head.

"I'm glad it's not me," she said, sighing.