by EMILY BEZERRA Social Media Coordinator
What started out as a dance trend ended up getting nearly three dozen students from Scripps Ranch High School in San Diego suspended. Thirty-three students participated in a “twerking” video, which was uploaded on YouTube, and viewed by their teachers.
The dirty dancing video not only got these kids suspended from school, but banned from prom and walking with their class in graduation as well. While some may find this punishment unfitting and harsh, you cannot blame the school administrators, considering the video was filmed during the school day with school equipment.
Although the user removed the YouTube video after a few hours, it caused quite a bit of damage while it was online. Yes, the video was in poor taste, but is it fair to make these kids suffer no graduation, prom, or sports for the rest of their high school career? Some argue that they should face a creative punishment, such as another YouTube video, explaining why this dance move demoralizes woman. Just an idea.
“As a father of two teenaged daughters in one of our different high schools, I take issues of proper conduct and discipline very seriously,” said Scott Barnett, Scripps Ranch school board member. “At the same time, I need to be satisfied that the consequences of these actions are reasonable and proportionate.”
What really made administration go berserk is that these students also used school technology equipment to add music with extremely explicit lyrics to the video.
“How stupid can you be? If you wanna twerk so bad, go for it. But not in front of people and definitely not for a YouTube video. These kids are idiots,” says sophomore Brina Haugland.
The students of Scripps Ranch find the punishment to be extremely unfair (no surprise there). Many of them, along with random people, have taken to Twitter to express their feelings.
“They may not be able to walk during graduation … but they didn’t say they couldn’t twerk across the stage! #FreeTheTwerkTeam,” reads one tweet.
#SRHSTwerkTeam and #freethetwerkteam are popular hashtags on the social network.
“This whole twerk team thing is basically like modern day Footloose #freethetwerkteam #SRHSTwerkTeam,” another Twitter user wrote.
Twerking has been endorsed by many celebrities, which is perhaps why many teenagers take such a liking to it. If you go to a Rihanna concert, I promise you she will twerk in every other song – I have seen it myself. Beyonce’s concerts are quite similar to this.
Miley Cyrus also uploaded a video of herself twerking, and openly discussed it during an interview with Ryan Seacrest.
“It’s just a trend going on, kind of like jerking. Except it’s a lot more innapropriate, which is why it’s creating a lot of issues. Eventually it’ll fade, just like every other dance fad,” says sophomore Melanie Conlon.
The Scripps Ranch school dance guidelines prohibits students from any “dance moves that may be considered sexually provocative or simulate sexual activity, i.e., grinding, freaking, dirty dancing.” Twerking should definitely be a new addition to those guidelines.
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