Rio Americano High School is receiving national attention -- but not the kind schools brag about.
Fox News television host Bill O'Reilly's show recently blasted Rio's song team for provocative dance moves during a performance at a back-to-school rally.
His "Culture Warriors" segment featured Fox commentators Margaret Hoover and Gretchen Carlson dissecting the dance routine while a recording of the most titillating moves played over and over on a loop. "They were absolutely overtly sexual," Hoover said. "What do you call spreading your legs and shaking your booty? They look like they're in an MTV music video, not at a high school performance."
Then Carlson chimed in:
"Can you imagine the young teenage boys sitting in that school audience? How in the heck were they concentrating on algebra after that?"
Not very well, apparently.
Senior John Butterfield, 17, had a front-row seat at the performance. He left the rally so shaken that he wrote an opinion piece for the Mirada, the school's student newspaper.
"Moves like we saw at the Aloha Rally are not allowed at normal school dances or even in most socially acceptable settings," Butterfield wrote. "This is a high school rally, not the latest music video, and when the song team spends most of the routine bent over, while it may (elicit) catcalls from the audience, it is simply not appropriate."
About 50 parents attended the Aug. 24 rally, and none of them complained, Principal Brian Ginter said.
The song team's routine didn't strike him as anything particularly noteworthy. By high school dance team standards, the girls were modestly dressed in loose-fitting light pink blouses, full-length pants and sneakers.
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