High school pep rally performance sparks outrage in North Carolina. ‘Unacceptable’
Performances at a high school pep rally sparked outrage and left a North Carolina principal “disgusted,” news outlets reported.
A video clip shared on social media shows someone in a Batman-like costume giving a lap dance and walking another person on a leash. Another performer can be seen lying against the floor while making a grinding motion.
McClatchy News is not posting the 30-second clip because it may show minors. The video reportedly was taken Oct. 6 at Oak Grove High School in the Winston-Salem area.
Principal Stefanie Stroud said the pep rally left her “disgusted, appalled, upset, embarrassed and disappointed,” calling the behavior “unacceptable,” according to The Dispatch newspaper and audio clips shared on social media.
Several users of Facebook and X — formerly known as Twitter — went online to share that they wanted answers. Some wondered whether the performance could have been stopped.
Davidson County Schools didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on Oct. 12. But the district told WFMY that outrage about the pep rally has boiled over.
“As a result of the outrage on social media and those soliciting others to join in ‘taking this as far as necessary,’ the video has gone viral, resulting in death threats against the school,” Tabitha Broadway, the interim superintendent, wrote in a statement. “While our administration at the school and district level, along with our board of education, agree completely that the student behavior in the video is inappropriate and unacceptable, the public response is posing a threat to the safety and security of students and staff in the school.”
The district told The Dispatch that it has worked to address what happened at the pep rally.
This story was originally published October 12, 2023 at 1:13 PM with the headline "High school pep rally performance sparks outrage in North Carolina. ‘Unacceptable’."
