Outrage after Washington middle school hosts 'disgusting' licking competition between students and staff
KENNEWICK, WASHINGTON: A Washington State middle school is being blasted by parents for hosting a 'licking competition' between students and staff. A video recorded by students shows minor students and adult staff at Desert Hills Middle School in Kennewick licking marshmallow cream off of either side of two clear plexiglass panes at the same time. This incident reportedly took place on March 31 during a competition at a school pep rally.
Horrified students can be heard in the video, which surfaced on social media, saying, "Ew," "Disgusting," "That’s so gross," and "What the heck?" Another student can be heard asking, "Who thought that this was a good idea?"
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Megan Sa, the mother of a female student who shared the video with her, told Fox News Digital that she emailed the superintendent, the school board, and the human resources department asking for a justification. Sa said that in the video, the principal can be seen laughing as he took out his phone to record the incident. She said she was "most" alarmed by a scene where the security guard "looked like he was licking the marshmallow off of the plexiglass in a sensual way."
'Schools should be a safe place for children'
"In my opinion, we do not send our children to school to be exposed to highly sexualized behavior by adults," Sa said. "We send them to school to learn and for them to socialize with other people their ages. They shouldn’t have to sit in a gym for a school assembly and wonder ‘What is going on?’ Schools should be a safe place for children to go and this despicable display of adult behavior was hard to watch."
Sa said she called some other parents to discuss the matter and they too are similarly enraged. "At least five adults were in the room and they just continued to participate," she said. "This isn't the first instance where I've had a grievance with this school and I've gone to the principal about it."
"It was my understanding that these students were putting their names on a list to say, 'Yeah, I want to participate in a game at the assembly,' but the teachers and the administrators did not tell them what kind of game they would be participating in," she added. Sa shared the video on Facebook.
Sa said when some of the children realized what the game was, some started pulling others to take their place. "If this is such a harmless and not an ill-intended game, then why the hell did you not share with the students what the game was going to be and the ground rules?" Sa said. She said she wrote a three-page document to the school and the superintendent said they would look into it. However, she said she has a feeling they were "going to push this under the rug," and thus decided to post it on social media.
"I've had many parents call me and say, 'I've had to have some pretty uncomfortable conversations with my kids around, 'Hey, this isn't right' and ‘This is why,'" she said. "I know there's a lot of people spreading gossip around [saying] this is grooming… I'm not sure I would go that far, but we can clearly see that if it were two adults in this same situation, HR would be getting called around sexual harassment."
What did the district's superintendent say?
The district's superintendent, Dr Traci Pierce, issued a statement to the school's families about a couple of weeks after the incident took place. She said the district has concluded its investigation into the matter, and described it as "not an appropriate activity." "During the activity, some students felt very uncomfortable, and the activity was highly disturbing for some students, parents, families, and community members to watch on video," she said. "This activity does not have district approval and will never be repeated in the future."
Pierce said that "there is no question about the appropriateness of the activity and its negative impact," but that "after thoroughly investigating how and why this particular activity took place, it is clear that the intent of the activity was innocent and not ill-intended."
"There is zero evidence to suggest or support that this was in any way ‘grooming’ activity on the part of organizers or participants," she added. "That being said, the fact that the activity was planned, occurred, and not stopped, shows a lack of sound discernment and good judgment, and the activity is not aligned with district expectations."
What did the school principal say?
Casey Gant, the school principal, apologized to the parents in a statement. "On behalf of Desert Hills Middle School, I would like to apologize for the activity that took place during our recent assembly," he 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," he added. "Again, I apologize that this incident occurred and for the negativity brought to the Desert Hills community."
Sa said the apology was "a slap in the face" because they "essentially weren't protecting our kids" and only apologized because of the social media outrage. "My concern was, and which I think happened, is you're losing all credibility in an investigation if you're allowing the parties who participated to corroborate over a couple of days' time or hours' time to get their stories straight," she said. "The fact that there was no suspension or no termination or anything like that taking place, I just felt like they lost all credibility on their investigation."