Parent: Lewd songs played at school

Sexually explicit lyrics blared from a stereo as students danced suggestively and an administrator looked on at a Stuarts Draft Middle School dance, a parent charges in a complaint e-mailed to district officials.

Superintendent Gary McQuain said Sunday that he has read the complaint sent by Robin Horton, of Waynesboro, and plans to set up a meeting with her to discuss her concerns.

Horton said she heard the music and witnessed the dancing Friday when she picked up her 12-year-old daughter at Stuarts Draft Middle School. Later that day, she e-mailed her complaint to McQuain and school Principal Scott Musick. She provided a copy of the complaint to The News Virginian.

“Literally, my jaw dropped,” Horton said.

Two of four songs Horton said she heard at the school were by popular rap artist Flo Rida: “Low” and “Right Round,” performed with Katy Perry, a song that samples the 1980s hit, “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive. A third song, Horton said, was Pink’s hit “So What.”

Crossroads Music and Movies carries all three CDs containing those songs. Each CD is stamped with a parental advisory label.

McQuain said Sunday that he had been unable to reach Musick. The superintendent said he expects to learn more today about what happened at the dance.

“I don’t know anything except what was in the e-mail,” McQuain said. “Until I find out exactly what happened, I can’t say anything.”

Musick did not return calls and could not be reached at home.

McQuain said he has yet to learn whether the music was played by a disc jockey, on an iPod, CD player or was aired over a radio.

Lyrics in the songs Horton cites include slang terms such as “low,” “tool” and “hit” that carry sexual and drug connotations, according to Online Slang Dictionary, a Web site. The lyrics also include frequent references to pole dancing.

Students dancing to Flo Rida’s “Low” responded in kind to the lyrics, “she turned around and gave that big booty a smack,” Horton said. The students danced in groups but did not touch each other, she said.

“If the kids can’t approach an administrator and say these things, why is it OK for them to play these lyrics at a dance?” Horton said.

It’s a double-standard, she said, that schools are teaching a family life curriculum while at the same time allowing suggestive behavior and obscene music.

“We’re putting our children in the care of these people,” Horton said. “We’re teaching them family life, but we’re speaking out of the sides of our mouths.”

Dances like the one Friday take place about once a month during the school year as a reward for students, Horton said. This one started after school and ended at 5 p.m., she said.

Horton said upon hearing the lyrics, she and her daughter left immediately. She said she was too upset to approach school officials at the event.

Waynesboro Public Schools Superintendent Robin Crowder said that in such cases when parents raise concerns, officials likely would respond by immediately turning off the music.

“I’m sure if that parent shared that with the administration or the teachers, they would have responded appropriately,” Crowder said.

The letter Horton sent to school officials cites the lyrics and states that if a student repeated phrases from the songs, “they would likely be suspended or expelled from school.”

“My daughter thought it nothing unusual,” Horton writes in the letter, “and commented that the songs that were played earlier were ‘way worse’ and ‘had a lot of sex in them.’

“After school event or no, I expect my child to be kept in an appropriate and safe environment and the sexually explicit portrayal of wom[e]n in these songs as prostitutes and strippers is vile and unacceptable in any way, in any grade level and at any time in any school, EVER,” Horton writes.

Students are required to gain signed parental permission to attend the dances, called “Fun Afternoon.”

At Waynesboro, the school division’s parent-student handbook, posted on the district Web site, says “students shall not use language, a gesture, or engage in conduct that is vulgar, profane, obscene or disrupts the teaching and learning environment.” Students, the handbook says, are not only subject to disciplinary action for things that happen during the school day, but at any school-sponsored activity.

“A student shall not sexually harass another student or any school employee, volunteer, student teacher or any other person present in school facilities or at school functions,” the handbook says. “Sexual harassment includes any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other inappropriate verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.”

The policy guides for Staunton public schools on student behavior are the same. Augusta’s conduct guidelines are not available online.

Horton said she would prefer to send her children to private school to avoid the influence of obscene music, but she lacks the resources to do that.

Crowder said teachers and administration in the city school system teach appropriate behaviors for different settings. While everyone has different standards, “there has to be an acceptable level of understanding amongst everyone,” he said.

“The schools and their staff have no motive in playing inappropriate music ... or have kids doing inappropriate things,” Crowder said. “It’s just unfortunate that those events happen. It’s kind of the nature of the beast, I’m afraid.”

News Virginian staff writer Tony Gonzalez contributed to this report.