We’d like to present our “Dumbest Move of the Year” award to Perry Hall High School principal George Roberts (right here in Baltimore, no less) for suspending the entire Perry Hall soccer team and forcing them to miss the playoffs after the team did a popular dance from the movie “Weekend at Bernie’s 2″ at a recent soccer match.
UPDATE 1: The Facebook protest page is up
UPDATE 2: Kudos to the principal…the decision has been reversed and Perry Hall soccer is back on!
ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES BELOW…
It seems that, during a game against Dulaney High School, the Perry Hall players did the “Move It Like Bernie” dance. Parents of the Dulaney players have apparently never seen the movie and perceived the dance as being “vulgar” and “lewd,” according to Perry Hall coach Pete Eibner, who is inexplicably siding with Roberts in this matter.
In the popular “Weekend at Bernie’s” movies, Bernie, the lead character, is dead…so he flails around awkwardly as a dead person might, leading to the current dance craze.
Team members say the principal met with them the day after they did the Bernie dance and told them their season was over.
“There was disbelief and tears. When you hear that, you don’t know what to do or say. You’re hurt,” one player told WBAL in Baltimore.
“From what we heard, apparently we were doing sexual gestures, which I don’t see how you can do that from a dance where we clearly have pictures of how we were doing it. It’s just disappointing that they would say that,” another player said.
“At (Archbishop) Curley, they did the dance earlier in the year and never got penalized. Ethan scored the winning goal, and we all ran over to him and did the dance,” a third player explained.
Perry Hall players and parents are seething because they say the punishment is unfair. As a result of the entire team being suspended, players say they will be knocked out of the regional playoffs due to their forfeit against Black High School.
“I just think our boys need to be treated fairly. I think this whole decision was wrong, and I think it’s not fair to them. I think it should be reevaluated,” said one Perry Hall mom.
Parents say they plan to meet with Roberts about the suspension.
It’s a shame that the cluelessness of the Dulaney parents and the Perry Hall administration is going to cost this team it’s season…especially since the “Weekend at Bernie’s” movies came out when most of the parents were still teenagers themselves.
You can check out the “Move It Like Bernie” dance below. Do you think it’s sexual in any way?
UPDATE: The Perry Hall Patch has obtained some of the criticism from Dulaney parents.
“I witnessed a Perry Hall victory by a score of 2-1, a game in which the Perry Hall team played better soccer and deserved to win, in my opinion,” begins an email obtained by Patch, written by Dulaney supporter David Carder. “My opinion of your school, and your community, changed immediately after the end of the game to disgust.
“The display by your team—your entire team—at the end of the game will not be forgotten anytime soon by the assembled Dulaney parents, students and supporters.”
The email continues:
“Several of the players went much too far, gesturing with their hands and hips in lewd and suggestive movements that showed absolutely no respect or sportsmanship,” the email reads. “Specifically, the movements included thrusting their hips at the crowd, and pointing to their genitals. It was appalling.”
I wasn’t there, so I don’t know if there was any thrusting of the hips or pointing at their genitals, but if it was a true imitation of the “Move It Like Bernie” dance, I find this hard to believe.
More in the videos below:
Here’s a “Movin’ Like Bernie” flash mob that broke out in Kentucky in July of this year…
Here’s the Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice doing the “Bernie” dance after scoring a touchdown…
Related articles
- High School Soccer Season Cancelled Because Of Bernie Dance (thebiglead.com)
Get Blippitt via RSS feed, Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
and be sure to get our Daily Email Broadcast.
