To a 6-year-old, this music video is not sexy, because he has no idea what sexy is. And school administrators “know it.”
We haven’t had a jaw-dropping case of “no-tolerance” idiocy from school administrators in, oh, a week or so, but this one is worth at least three.
D’Avonte Meadows, a first-grader at Sable Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado, was suspended for three days for “sexual harassment” and “disrupting other students.” His offense was singing a portion of the popular song (by hip-hop group LMFAO) “I’m sexy and I know it” to a female student. Sample lyrics:
yeah yeah I pimp to the beat,
walking down the street in my new la freak, yeah This is how I roll, animal print pants out control
It’s Red Foo with the big afro
An like Bruce Leroy I got the glow, yo
(Ahhh) Girl look at that body
I-I-I work out
(Ahhh) Girl look at that body
I-I-I work out
When I walk in the spot, (yea) this is what I see (okaay)
Everybody stops and they staring at me
I got a passion in my pants and I ain’t afraid to show it, show it, show it, show it…
I’m sexy and I know it…
In response to protests, the school fatuously referred to its policy against sexual harassment, which was composed by geniuses who never thought to include a requirement that offenders know what sex is. “Don’t accuse us of a moronic application of a policy: we have a moronic policy, so we’re just doing our job, ” is the sense of this argument.
Colorado is poised to pass a law to stop “no-tolerance” policies in schools, but the law can’t cure stupid. A school administrator so inept, unfair, incompetent and irresponsible that he or she thinks it is reasonable to punish a 6-year-old for sexual harassment on the basis of his repeating lyrics he couldn’t possibly understand doesn’t need no-tolerance policies to mess up children’s lives and education. They’ll find a way.
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Facts: Associated Press
Sources: Metrolyrics
Graphic: Scallywag and Vagabond
Ethics Alarms attempts to give proper attribution and credit to all sources of facts, analysis and other assistance that go into its blog posts. If you are aware of one I missed, or believe your own work was used in any way without proper attribution, please contact me, Jack Marshall, at jamproethics@verizon.net.
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How could any first grader understand the concept behind the song? He was merely parrotting something he picked up from the ubiquitous, degraded popular culture and repeating it on the assumption that it was “cool”. Teacher: Just take the child aside and inform him that just because he saw it on TV doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate.
What? You don’t think a first grader knows what it means to have passion in his pants?
How could anyone understand the concept behind the song? The sample lyrics do not seem to contain any intelligible meaning. I hope the school’s policy does not mean that all nonsense verse constitutes sexual harassment.
It’s not “nonsense verse”- in the sense of a nursery rhyme. We know exactly what it means. A pre-pubescent elementary school kid knows that it’s adult and intended to be “cool”, but can’t yet relate entirely to the meaning. But the concept of coolness in these sort of words and implied behavior has been placed in his head… to be potentially acted upon in the future.
When I was referring to my studies into the hazards of modern child acting, I mentioned three elements that had to be considered in the making of child exploitive films- content, condition and concept- with the latter as the most dangerous. This carries over into a child’s experience in school. Such concepts as expressed by the aforementioned lyrics (particularly with a steady diet of like songs and phrases) tend to stick over time and warp a child’s outlook of right and wrong.
Children all tend to be “actors” to an extent and are imitative of the concepts they are devouring ravenously from all sources. This is known as “play”. When they manifest signs of having absorbed distasteful and potentially destructive concepts, they need to be guided away from such things and back on a moral course. This is known as “parenting”.
Yeah, the last couple of lines do make it clear that the singer is aware of his own attractiveness. I was just being facetious and I didn’t mean any criticism or anything.
Some of the lyrics before the last couple of lines just puzzled me. Who is Bruce Leroy and why does he glow? I didn’t know that Red Foo was a member of LMFAO at first, so that line was similarly unintelligible. In these lines, he might as well have been talking about slithy toves as far as I am concerned.
I understood, Eric. Just clarifying my point.
If the poor kid lives in an environment that would allow him to hear those lyrics enough to actually know them by heart, I think the problem is NOT with the kid but with whomever he lives with. I say calling in Social Services is the more appropriate response.
Exactly. The parents are responsible. What’s really irritating is the double standard. Advocating sex ed for young children but then punishing this behavior.
Hardly. I don’t think you can justify involving Social Services over something like that. Sure, the song may be a little risque, but the danger to children from their entertainment is a little overhyped. I listened to Marilyn Manson when I was a teenager in the 90’s, and now I’m a productive member of society with a steady job, some investments, a wife, and a cat.
Yikes; Social Services? My son is 9 and knows the lyrics from the refrain, as I suspect this child did. The song was everywhere; television, radio, in stores. We heard it regularly on a four-day trip at the beach. My son thinks it’s funny. But he also knows it doesn’t belong in school. When he was in first grade, he started to sing a pop song in class and his teacher pulled him to the side, told him to stop – that it was inappropriate – and that was that.
My son can also remember lines from a television show or movie after he hears it for the first time. He loves to repeat his favorites.
He also loves to read, plays outside regardless of the weather, eats a healthy diet and adores being in the spotlight (no stage fright for him). Should Social Services be called because he knows some of the lyrics to “I’m Sexy and I Know it?”
I’m with Jack. This was a total overreaction to a situation that simply called for the teacher to pull the student aside, let him know the song was inappropriate and move on. Good grief!
Glad to have you back commenting, Debby! I’ve missed you.
Thanks, Jack! Glad to be back.
I wonder why kids now days are so confused as to what is or is not appropriate (HUGE eye roll). This is FAR from the first such incident splattered all over the media, involving a young child in school and deeming the child guilty of a sexual offense. The real travesty is that many of these cases are making their way into criminal court and CHILDREN are being convicted of sex offenses and required to register as sex offenders, some of them for life.
The article says that school officials “pointed out a school board policy that defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexual advance”. So was it unwelcome? Was the other child distressed by this? Did she tell him to stop, and he persisted? I rather suspect NOT, as no other parent is being interviewed here about their poor Fiona’s distress; the other child, the “little girl” was more likely bored, baffled, oblivious, or entertained.
However, if the other child _was_ distressed, and the boy persisted in behaviour that distressed her, this incident might be better described as bullying. Takes some pretty egregious bullying to earn a six-year-old a three-day suspension. No, I suspect it’s all about the sexual content, adult discomfort with the sexual content, and a teacher and administration who weren’t comfortable telling a kid “that song isn’t appropriate for school”. Wonder how they handle nose-picking, masturbation, and underpants adjustments?
I do think the principle or teacher should have talked to the parents. Anyone who lets their first grader listen to a band called “Laughing My Fucking Ass Off” should be called on it.
What are the odds the kid has any idea what LMFAO stands for? I’m still trying to figure out what “Strawberry Alarm Clock” means….
I believe it’s synonymous with “second-rate-one-hit-wonder-rock-band-in-psychedelic-pajamas”, Jack. Having once seen them perform, I can attest to the accuracy of that description.
I know this topic is old, but how could they suspend a child for singing this song when it is now even used in an M&M’s candy commercial on television? I am not saying it SHOULD be used in an M&M’s commercial, but people in places of authority need to use their heads. I think people are too quick to rally around punishing someone, i.e. calling social services on the “horrible” parents who exposed their children to the wicked music. Calling social services or suspending from school because the kids mimic a highly popular, catchy tune? Ridiculous. Big Brother is here among us.