MOUNT CLEMENS (WXYZ) — Local school officials are upset after a video surfaced on social media with their gym as the background for a sexually explicit musical performance on Saturday.
Twerking controversy: School officials ‘disgusted’ after video surfaces
“I was appalled, actually,” said Matt Pitters, a ’98 graduate of Mount Clemens High School.
The performance by local rapper O.T. Rell and a dancer was recorded inside the gym at Mount Clemens High School.
Pitters was one of the many people stunned when they saw the performance going around on social media.
“The club promoters … I don’t fault them. It’s the fault of, you know, our school leaders,” he said.
Quentin Hines runs Rivals Recruiting Worldwide, which he says is a nonprofit. He was the promoter behind the event that he says featured 20 artists, including O.T. Rell. He says he rented out the school gym for $2,000, and that he takes full responsibility for what happened.
“There’s a lot of… local singers and rappers, R&B artists that want to get their name out there, and they donate to our charity to be able to perform. And we try to provide them with an opportunity to potentially gain more fans,” said Hines.
Artist O.T. Rell said, “they knew that the stripper was coming, because I said it numerous times.”
Pitters said he was upset there was no interruption from anybody at the school during the performance.
“I would expect that even if the facilities were in use from a third party, but there would be some representative from the school that would be there to monitor what was going on. And if something inappropriate was happening, to take action to stop it,” he said.
Superintendent Monique Beels said she was “appalled and disgusted” after finding out what happened in the school gym.
“I just hurt for our schools and our community and our kids that something like this would have occurred at our school,” she said.
She added, “the application was for a charity event, it was to be a Sweetest Day musical event and talent show. That’s what we were told it was, and we have rented to this person before, we had no reason to think that anything inappropriate would take place. Nothing ever had in the past.”
In a letter to those in the district, Superintendent Beels also said Rivals Recruiting Worldwide is banned from using their facilities in the future, saying their trust was broken.
“We will never rent to him again. We’re also looking at our policies and seeing if there are things that we can do to tighten it up. So it doesn’t happen again,” she said.
As for the promoter, Hines says he will ask more questions when booking artists.
“We are trying to provide that platform for artists to be discovered and get their name out there, but we will screen them a little bit better in the future,” said Hines.
O.T. Rell said he was just doing what he does.
“I’m a regular person like everybody else just trying to be successful. And feed my family. That’s it,” he said.
