Video of 'marry, kill' game leads to reprimand of Michigan teachers

By Madison Bennett | MLive

BANGOR, MI - Bangor Public Schools is facing backlash over a video that recorded teachers playing a "marry, kill" game and making what some believe were inappropriate comments about students.

But according to the district's attorney, Robert Huber, none of the comments involved students.

On Monday, Feb. 13, WWMT reported on a video said to involve a group of Bangor Public Schools employees speaking "inappropriately" about special-needs students.

"The false impression that was created is that teachers were talking about whether they would marry, 'f' or kill students," Huber said. "There's no truth to that at all."

The video, which appears to have been recorded at a bar or restaurant by someone at a nearby table, was posted to YouTube. A review of the video by district officials and law enforcement was conducted in which Huber said they determined no inappropriate comments were made about students by any teachers shown in the video.

Huber said Tuesday that the video wasn't new and had been brought to the attention of school administrators nearly three weeks ago.

"At the time the person who had the video had allowed us to see it," the school district's attorney said. "When I say us, one of the administrators was allowed to see the video but not given a copy."

According to Huber, the contents of the full video involve a game where school district employees were naming colleagues and choosing which they would rather marry, kill or have sex with them.

Out of six teachers in attendance, two were involved in the game, as well an administrative secretary.

The two participating teachers received written reprimands, while the other four teachers, who were determined to not have been taking part in the game were given verbal reprimands, Huber said.

As for the names of students brought up in the video, Huber said that was solely done by the secretary and that none of the teachers joined in discussion at that point. The secretary resigned from Bangor Public Schools shortly after the video was released.

Many parents as well as others living in the district came to a regularly scheduled meeting of the school board Monday to speak about the matter.

"I knew yesterday when I saw some of the articles that this would obviously be an issue that would be discussed but I had no idea that we'd have the crowd that we did," Huber said. "These are patrons of the community and they have every right to know what's going on."

While many people expressed their anger and concern towards administration for the disciplinary action taken, Huber said the district stands by their decision.

This post originally appeared Feb. 14, 2017 on MLive.com.