Video Of Substitute Teacher Twerking In Classroom Sparks Controversy

A cell phone video of a Ponca City, Oklahoma, substitute teacher dancing in the classroom emerged Friday, sparking controversy among Ponca City High School parents and students alike as some have deemed it "inappropriate."

Other residents of Ponca City, a town just over 100 miles from Oklahoma City, spoke with local NBC affilliate KFOR-TV and simply described the man's dance as, "interesting," while others called for the man to be reprimanded or dismissed as a subsitute in the school district.

"I don’t think I can ever look at a guy the same way, so it's funny," said Angelica, a Ponca City resident, in an interview with KFOR-TV Friday.

"That's not appropriate for school. I don’t know why you would act like that and he shouldn’t have done the things he did," said Ponca City High School sophomore, Eli. "I think someone in that class was playing a song, I think they might have encouraged him to do that but I don’t know why he did the things he did."​

The Ponca City High School substitute teacher can be seen "twerking" in the video as he grinds his hips up and down before throwing his arms up together and rearing his butt against a student's desk. The dance is similar to the move popularized in the 2007 Huey song, "Pop Lock and Drop It." The music video for the song shows rapper Huey and several other "students" taking over a high school as an angry teacher fails to interrupt their legendary dance moves.

Another portion of the video shows the unidentified man prancing around the classroom as students can be heard laughing as others recorded the incident on their phones.

A Ponca High School parent named Mandy labeled the man's classroom dance moves as more "interesting" than anything else.

"Interesting , is it appropriate? Well, he might have gone a little far, but I don’t know what the context of the video is," she remarked. "What were they doing in the class? I would not do it, but that's all I’m saying."

Firing or replacing the dancing man may be difficult as Oklahoma has recently been hit with a statewide shortage of teachers and substitute teachers, KOKI-TV reported last week. Subsitutes cancelling or showing up last minute has negatively impacted classrooms statewide, with Tulsa Public Schools officials saying they are having difficulty filling substitute roles.

Ponca City High administrators did not respond to the video but said they are aware of its existence and are investigating the matter.

In 2017, a Pawhuska, Oklahoma substitute teacher plead guilty to assault after she exposed herself to students performing a cartwheel while wearing no underwear. Lacey Sponsler's defense attorney argued the incident was "blown out of proportion" and she was not forced to register as a sex offender.