A middle school in Kennewick, Washington, is under fire after hosting a marshmallow-licking competition between teachers and students.
An investigation into the activation concluded that the game was “innocent and not ill-intended.”
Still, many in the public believed that the activity was inappropriate— with some suggesting it was sexual in nature.
During a March 31 assembly at the Desert Hills Middle School, teachers proposed a fundraising game that involved both adults and students licking a plexiglass divider covered in marshmallow cream. One individual was positioned on one side of the clear plane, while the other stood on the opposite side.
Footage shot by students showed other students at one station and teachers at another simultaneously licking the white sticky substance off the plastic glass window.
Voices of the pre-teens can be heard saying “eww,” “What the heck,” and “That’s so gross.”
Some teachers were licking so aggressively that the glass panes almost fell. One male teacher licks the window slowly and intentionally, as another person mirrors his motion.
One clip shows a male teacher cupping another individual’s head, making the person lick at the same time as he did.
One student asks in disbelief, “Who thought this was a good idea?” Another says, “It looks so wrong.”
The kids pan the video back and forth and resolve that at least the children are not licking the glass opposite the teachers.
The video was posted on Facebook on Tuesday, April 11 by the account Megan Jonathan with the caption “Levy funds well spent…. You should be ASHAMED of yourselves!!! #inappropriate #plexikiss #DisgustingBehaviour #DisgustingHumans #whippedcream #ProtectOurChildren.”
It quickly made headlines and became viral as public outrage saturated the internet.
One parent, Sandie Salisbury, questioned how “this room full of adults did nothing to stop this from happening.”
Salisbury said her “child came home from school on the last day before spring break and said that they had a really weird assembly that day,” briefly shared but it was not until she saw the video that she saw what transpired and said she was “more than disappointed” at the school.
Twitter user @MKCTexas on the other side of the country weighed in asking, “How is this okay? What the heck is wrong with these adults? And why @ksdschools is the video not on your page if it is so dang innocent?”
After an investigation by the Kennewick School District, Superintendent Dr. Traci Pierce sent a letter to DHMS families to share the board’s probe findings.
According to NBC Right Now, the school leader said the fundraiser was not “an appropriate activity.”
“This activity does not have district approval and will never be repeated in the future,” Pierce wrote but also said it was “innocent and not ill-intended” and did not promote the practice of ‘grooming’ by the adults involved in its organization or participation.
