{"id":63376,"date":"2019-03-22T09:34:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/balloon-game-played-at-durango-high-school-pep-rally-raises-concerns\/"},"modified":"2019-03-22T15:34:58","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:34:58","slug":"balloon-game-played-at-durango-high-school-pep-rally-raises-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/balloon-game-played-at-durango-high-school-pep-rally-raises-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Balloon game played at Durango High School pep rally raises concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A screen shot from a pep rally Friday at Durango High School shows student athletes playing a \u201cballoon pop\u201d game. Male students sat on chairs or laid on the floor while female students sat on inflated balloons and tried to pop them.<\/span>Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A balloon game some Durango High School athletes played during a pep rally Friday has riled some students and parents over its inappropriate nature, prompting the principal to email an apology to parents.<\/p>\n

During the activity, male students held inflated balloons on their laps and chests while female students either sat or laid on top of them and bounced up and down in attempt to pop them. A student shared a video of the game on Snapchat, a social media platform that allows videos to be posted by location.<\/p>\n

The sexualized nature of the game upset a parent who learned about it from her daughter, a DHS student.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many other things you can do at a pep assembly to get kids excited,\u201d said the parent, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid backlash against her daughter. She said school staff should have stepped in to prevent the activity from taking place.<\/p>\n

The parent said her daughter was also upset about the game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>

The game took place during the Unified\/Spring Sports assembly, DHS Principal Jon Hoerl said in a letter to parents. Seniors representing each sport participated in the balloon game, he wrote. He acknowledged that many \u201cquestioned the appropriateness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize for any discomfort resulting from this event and appreciate your patience while I conduct a thorough investigation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Sexual Assault Services Organization<\/a> Executive Director Maura Doherty Demko said she was disappointed to learn the game was played.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings that appear benign are those pieces that open the ground for more severe harassment \u2013 eventually assault, because it\u2019s played off as a joke,\u201d Demko said.<\/p>\n

SASO works with Durango School District 9-R to provide education about sexual consent and respect, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that 9-R is a huge advocate of teaching boundaries, teaching consent and teaching respect, so to me this is conflicting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fort Lewis College senior Matisse Monty said she can understand the argument by people who say it was an innocent game and that some may dismiss it as harmless. However, the fact that the activity wasn\u2019t questioned before it was played illustrates how rape culture is normalized, said Monty, a public health and sociology major, who educates her peers about sex.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we want to be a society or a community that finds that it\u2019s acceptable and isn\u2019t sensitive to these issues,\u201d she said of normalizing rape culture. Rape culture is an environment where sexual violence is acceptable.<\/p>\n

Julie Popp, 9-R spokeswoman, said the district is investigating the situation and will address issues appropriately and according to district policy. The district is also communicating with parents, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we know that assemblies are great peer networking and school engagement events, we do not condone activities that don\u2019t support our educational mission,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jessica Wheeler, a member of the Durango High School\u2019s accountability committee, said she could not comment about what took place because she was not familiar with it. But she said she plans to ask about how it was handled at the committee\u2019s next meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of confidence in Jon Hoerl that he will follow up and make sure the situation is reviewed and handled,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Durango High Letter (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

people, activity was indicative of \u2018normalizing\u2019 rape culture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[592,155,13,28,29,4259,3947],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-63376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-high-school","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-sex"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63376"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=63376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}