The now-viral video has caused a lot of outrage, “disgusting” one person has defined it even writing about the event on X. The event took place at the Edmond school district in Oklahoma, the Deer Creek school on Feb. 29th, 2024.
The viral video displays a high school kid lying on his stomach with another student sitting in a chair with peanut butter on his feet that the student on his belly begins to lick off.
“Whenever she told me yesterday that was happening, I had to ask her, ‘Wait, what? They’re licking peanut butter off of toes. What?” said one parent wanting to remain anonymous. “I’m all for fundraising and all for really fun and silly things, but that right there just seems a little excessive,” another parent said.
The event was a fundraiser for the school’s philanthropy week, in which they raised $152,830.38 which they were giving to a local café/bakery Average Joes which employs people with physical and mental disabilities.
It even made national headlines when Texas senator Ted Cruz spoke up about the event calling it “Child Abuse”
The school which is now being investigated for this and other allegations such as this that go back as far as 2015.
“All participants in the assembly were students who signed up for the games they played ahead of time, no Deer Creek faculty or staff participated in any games during this “Clash of the Classes assembly” reads the statement from the school. “Many dedicated students gave generously to their personal time to achieve this momentous accomplishment, which will serve the communities beyond the boundaries of Deer Creek”.
More is coming out about the event and the behind-the-scenes action that took place, students wanting to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation have spoken about what really took place.
“Any student could bid on another student. So say a student didn’t like me, they could put $100 on me to lick ketchup off someone’s face. If I didn’t have the $100 to give to the philanthropy to get out of it, I would just have to be involved with it”. This student said also “It honestly felt more like hazing in a way, because if you didn’t have the money to get out of it, you were being forced to do it.”.
The claim that students with money to buy themselves out of dares have more privilege than those with little to no money, is from multiple students at the school. “Most students can’t afford that, especially the lower income, so it was definitely more if a bullying. I think they were targeting certain students for sure.”
These challenges leaving these students in a vice grip of fear, anxiety, and some even down to tears as they cross their fingers hoping not to be nominated for these so-called challenges. Aside from just having to lick peanut butter off the toes of another student other challenges involved trash cans, and one called bird feeding.
“Somebody was nominated to stand in a trash can, this was after we had all eaten our lunch. We would pour our lunch on top of this person that was in the trash can and they threw up” another student said.
The Bird feeding challenge according to another student is “the bird feeding would consist of four students. So the first student would have to drink something, put it in their mouth and then spit it into the next person’s mouth, and then spit it into the third person’s mouth, and the fourth person had to swallow it.”
We have seen instances in which hazing has resulted in death, such as Sam Martinez who was a freshman pledging with Alpha Tau Omega at the Washington State University in 2019. It was a ritual called “the gauntlet” where you were forced to drink 18 drinks in less than 90 minutes. Sam Suffered from traumatic injuries in a head-first fall down a set of stairs.
Hazing is a tradition and one that is both celebrated and honored as a rite of passage. It should be respected and kept with the life safety of another. Especially on college campuses so for those of you about to transfer from Butte Community College to University be cautious when joining a Fraternity or Sorority. They are awesome ways to network and have brotherhood and sisterhood for life but remember to care for yourself as well.
