Editorial: RHS pep fest prank nothing to apologize for

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Rosemount High School principal John Wollersheim issued an apology this week to anyone who might have been offended by a joke played on some winter sports captains at an RHS pep fest last week. The move makes sense considering the reactions expressed in some places to video of the event. But we hardly think RHS has anything to apologize for.

If you haven’t yet seen the video several Irish captains were blindfolded at the traditional winter sports pep fest and told they were about to get a kiss from another student. What they got instead was a smooch from one of their parents.

The parents hammed it up as they played their part. At least, we assume nobody was making out as intensely as the video seems to show. Wollersheim and others who were there say they weren’t, and we tend to believe them. Parents have taken the opportunity at many other RHS pep fests to make their kids a little uncomfortable, but we suspect they’d all draw the line at the kind of passionate kisses the video seemed to show.

In the end, the event was fun. The audience loved it, and the parents and students who were involved all seemed to be laughing when it was over. RHS has done something like the kissing prank before, and it’s not hard to find similar videos from other schools. You don’t even have to modify your search from “RHS Kissing” to find a video from Roseville High School’s most recent homecoming pep fest.

The parents in that instance limited themselves to chaste pecks on the cheek, but we think it’s an argument in Rosemount’s favor that the parents here were willing to play along so thoroughly.

There is a lot of talk about Rosemount High School feeling like a community, and events like last week’s pep fest are a big part of that. It was fun for everyone involved, and that’s nothing to apologize for.

Tags: high school, opinion, rosemount, editorials