Bob CollinsParents of second- and third-graders in Brainerd, Minn., what on earth are you thinking?
So many of them are letting their kids watch Jeffy the Rapper on YouTube, that the school district has had to send letters home asking them to stop.
The Brainerd Dispatch reports that mostly boys — big shock — are mimicking “obscene and disturbing behavior” in the video series.
Repeating: second and third grade.
“I’ve been a lady working in education for 20 years. I know that kids can be kids,” Jodi Kennedy, the principal of Garfield Elementary School, said. “But, this video is crossing a line in several areas … I don’t know if this is what these people are intending, but it looks kid-friendly and it’s not.”
“Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of hip thrusting standing in the lunch line. We’ve had some of Jeffy’s words, which are words I would not like to repeat,” Kennedy said, noting the puppet harps about murdering a woman for “street cred” in at least one clip. “Jeffy doesn’t treat women very nicely, he’s got some really inappropriate terms for them.”
Along with derogatory gestures and comments to fellow students, Kennedy noted one boy shoved a pencil up his nose and at least one other may have soiled himself mimicking the string-operated Jeffy.
Kennedy said the school’s firewall and technology-use restrictions mean students are unable to view non-educational content in school limits. While students are able to meet, talk about and act out Jeffy’s sketches on school grounds, they’re viewing this content outside, often at home. She added without audio, the clips don’t appear inappropriate at first glance. If parents hear the audio, however, they’re immediately introduced to Jeffy’s vulgar antics—something that may slip through the cracks if the child is wearing headphones when they’re viewing the clips.
Kennedy said the phenomenon’s spread has been rampant at the school.
Symptoms apparent include Jeffy’s signature moves of fondling his crotch and humping a box of Cheerios.
