More Reaction to Video of Blindfolded High-Schoolers

Reaction continues to the video taken at Rosemount High School in Minnesota. At other schools, or perhaps at this one, pranks have been done before in which the blindfolded person is kissed conservatively by other students (such as their known girlfriend or boyfriend, or cheerleaders) and when the blindfolds are removed, their parents are standing in front of them pretending to be the ones who kissed them. But as we’ve seen, in this case the parents of the students were the ones actually doing the kissing, hugging, and touching.

From Rheana Murray at nydailynews.com…

While flooded without outside complaints, Wollersheim told the Associated Press that he had received no objections from the school’s athletes or parents.

In fact, he’s gotten some positive feedback, he said.

“I think people need to have more of a sense of humor! Kudos to you for all that you do – as I do not feel as a parent there was anything offensive about the video,” wrote one person in an email, which Wollersheim shared with the news service.

Inquisitr.com wrote “Kissing Prank Blends Sexual Abuse, Humiliation, and Incest.”

Someone at Rosemount High School pitched this idea for a kissing prank: “OK, so here’s the idea. We blindfold a bunch of high school kids and have them stand in front of the entire student body in the gym. Then we tell them that they’re going to get a surprise kiss. As their adolescent hormones start raging we take of their blindfolds and reveal that they’ve been making out with their parents.”

And people agreed. And they did it. And it was gross.

Elizabeth Scalia at patheos.com asks, “What the Hell is WRONG with these people?”

What the hell is wrong with people? What the hell were these parents thinking? What was the school thinking? Is self-respect a concept utterly lost to this country?

Is her problem the potential sexual assault aspect (given that some of these students may not ever have consented to this level of affection with a parent, or with someone of a different gender)? Well...

Queasy hell, I watched the video; it’s full-on disgusting. Incest Surprise! Let’s normalize incest, now!

We should “normalize” consensual affection. We should never “normalize” assault. But then she does go on to write...

Forget the sex-and-incest vibe; it’s too creepy to dwell on. Ponder what sort of parents would want to embarrass their kids publicly like this, what sort of school would think so little of their student’s human dignity?

Deacon Greg Kandra wrote at patheos.com…

Besides stupefied, you can also describe me as nauseated. Give that last line a gander, will you? “None of the students or parents involved in the kissing antics complained about the routine at all…” Let that sink in.

Max Lindenman rounds out the patheos.com reaction…

Now, I don’t imagine for a moment that any of these parents were acting out incestuous impulses. More likely, they were just trying to make their kids look like total dorks in front of their friends. Still, at least with me, the incest taboo is deeply enough ingrained that nothing I write in these folks’ defense can keep my skin from crawling.

Stefanie Blejec reacts at thefrisky.com…

I’m sorry, innocent peck or not, I would be mortified if I removed my blind fold and saw my mom or dad standing there.

Jennifer Hartline at Catholic Online has “Cheering for Incest?!? Some Healthy Shame Would Do Us Some Good.”

You know what I think we need a big, healthy dose of? Shame! Yes -- bring back shame! Bring back a healthy, appropriate, moral sense of shame.

In case you didn’t catch that…

We need to start being ashamed of our bad behavior again. We need to stop coddling ourselves and our kids in a bubble of fragile self-esteem and feel mortified when we screw up royally or behave like uncivilized animals.

I explained my problem with the prank already. Notice how much of reaction online is about the consanguity between the participants, and there are many, many comments left after the articles that are hateful and prejudiced against consanguinamory in general.