By Aaron Miller-
A video showing a licking competition between students and staff at a middle school in Washington state went viral this month, outraging horrified parents who heard about it.
Shocking footage of the competition at Desert Hills Middle School in Kennewick, Washington, where schoolkids and their adult teachers were tasked with licking marshmallow cream off either side of a plexiglass pane at the same time.
Horrified students, some of whom recorded the game and showed their parents, can be heard in the video screaming ‘Ew’, ‘Disgusting’ and ‘That’s so gross’
The game took place during an assembly at Desert Hills Middle School in Kennewick in March, local news station KNDU reported.
Video recorded by students showed students and teachers simultaneously licking cream off of opposite sides of clear plexiglass planes.
“That’s so gross,” “I’m gonna throw up” and “What the heck” are among the things students can be heard yelling in the video.
Megan Sa, the mother of a student, posted the clip on her Facebook page, where it attracted more than 1,200 comments.
“You should be ASHAMED of yourselves!!!” Sa wrote in the April 12 po
“In my opinion, we do not send our children to school to be exposed to highly sexualized behavior by adults,” Sa told Fox News.
Many were outraged, with one commenting on Sa’s post that the game was “incredibly inappropriate.”
“Disgusting. Completely inappropriate. Shameful,” another added.
Another wrote: “That’s so uncomfortable and wrong on so many levels. And definitely not hygienic especially after a pandemic.”
Another wrote: “I am baffled by the lack of judgement shown in picking appropriate school games for assemblies,” another person wrote. “It’s mind-boggling to watch this video and wonder how not one adult questioned whether this was the kind of appropriate teacher/student behavior they wanted to exemplify through a ‘fun game?'”
However, some defended the school, saying it was students who had come up with the game.
“My daughter goes to this school, I know what happened here,” one person wrote. “The KIDS made this game up. NOBODY was forced to do this and EVERYONE wanted it to be fun. This isn’t supposed to be anything disgusting. If the kids didn’t want to do it they didn’t have to. It’s not the staff’s fault.”
Another person wrote: “My daughter goes to school at DHMS and was at the assembly. This game was chosen by the students and agreed to by the staff. The staff who have been amazing to my kid for three years. Does it have bad optics? Perhaps. I’m not offended by it.”
Another added: “I think people are just looking for any reason to criticize schools. I personally think they were having a fun day as every school has done for years.”
Last week, the district’s superintendent sent a letter to families saying the district had concluded the activity was not appropriate and would never occur again.
“This activity does not have district approval and will never be repeated in the future,” Dr. Traci Pierce in a letter to DHMS families, KNDU reported.
The district’s investigation found the intent of the activity was “innocent and not ill-intended.”
The school’s principal, Casey Gant, issued a statement apologizing for the game.
“On behalf of Desert Hills Middle School, I would like to apologize for the activity that took place during our recent assembly,” Gant said.
“As building principal, I take ownership for the events that occur in my school, and I recognize the impact that this situation has had on our school community. I am committed to the safety of our students and staff and will ensure that all future activities meet the highest professional standards and adhere to district policy.”
Fundraiser
The bizarre game was proposed as part of a pep rally and fundraiser held before the students departed for spring break.
Two plexiglass panes with several spreads of marshmallow cream were positioned in the center of the school’s gym, before teams of students and teachers sprinted towards each other and licked the cream off the glass.
The competition often saw the adult teachers and minor students licking their respective sides of the glass at the same time.
‘Who thought this was a good idea?’ screamed one of the students, with many appearing extremely uncomfortable at the alarming game.
Footage of the activity sparked fury among parents after it was shared online, with mom Sandie Salisbury questioning on social media how ‘this room full of adults did nothing to stop this from happening’.
‘My child came home from school on the last day before spring break and said that they had a really weird assembly that day,’ she continued.
‘He shared briefly – but I had no idea and could never even imagine how incredibly inappropriate this really was. HOW HOW HOW did this happen.’
The mom added that school activities often have to go through several levels of permission before going ahead, feeling the game should have been prevented well before it should ultimately have been ‘stopped in the moment.’