In a now-infamous incident at a New Jersey high school, an assembly meant to promote digital wellness backfired when the presenter—a young influencer hired for his large following—encouraged students to participate in a live “roast session” using viral sound bites. The result was a cascade of targeted insults, a tearful walkout, and a lawsuit.
“Schools underestimate how fast popular media changes and how context-blind it can be,” says Dr. Lina Hayes, a researcher in educational media at Stanford. “A dance challenge that’s innocent on Tuesday can be co-opted by a hateful trend by Friday. When you invite popular culture into a school, you aren’t curating it. You’re surfing it.”
At Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, the annual “Media Mashup” talent show requires contestants to reinterpret a current meme or song lyric into an original performance. Last year’s winner—a quiet sophomore—created a spoken-word piece layered over a deconstructed version of an Ice Spice beat, critiquing algorithmic echo chambers. The audience, initially primed for laughs, fell silent. Www Xxx School
Half the students groan. Half laugh. And a handful immediately start editing the video on their phones.
This model has its defenders. “When students curate, they feel ownership,” says Kevin Okonkwo, principal of a Bronx middle school that replaced its traditional spring concert with a “TikTok Takeover Night”—a live show where students performed original sketches, dances, and remixes. Attendance tripled. In a now-infamous incident at a New Jersey
By J. Sampson | Feature Writer
And on a good day, to make them laugh without anyone getting hurt. Back in Columbus, the Spring Showcase ends. The final act is a school-wide rendition of a popular “seamless transition” meme—students in different parts of the gym passing a hat from hand to hand, each one performing a micro-dance, the whole thing filmed in one continuous shot for the school’s YouTube channel. Lina Hayes, a researcher in educational media at Stanford
The lights come up. The principal takes the mic.
Some schools are already piloting these ideas.
The challenge for educators is not to resist popular media, nor to surrender to it uncritically. The challenge is to remember what entertainment in schools has always been for: not just to distract, but to connect. To build shared vocabulary. To make a student feel seen.
There are also concerns about attention fragmentation. Critics argue that leaning too heavily on pop media trains students to expect entertainment to come pre-packaged in 15-second loops. “We are mortgaging sustained focus for cheap relevance,” says one anonymous superintendent in a viral op-ed. “Not every school moment needs to be a ‘slay.’” Perhaps the most significant shift is who controls the content. Increasingly, schools are handing the remote to students.