‘Rape.’ Really? 4 SC students punished for body paint prank gone wrong

A group of South Carolina high school students has been punished for lining up to spell out “rape” while at a football game and sharing it on social media.

The teens – two seniors and two sophomores – were attending a football game at Westside High School in Anderson, S.C., against D.W. Daniel High School on Friday, according to the Independent-Mail.

The students had painted letters on their stomachs to spell out “bump cancer” for the game, as part an annual Breast Cancer Awareness Night, according to CNN. Every touchdown from the game was set to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

In a separate picture, however, the teens spelled out “rape,” captioned the image “What we do to Daniel” – referring to their school’s opponent in the game – and posted it on social media.

The spokesman for the school district, Kyle Newton, told the Independent Mail that the school spent the weekend tracking down the students and developing a “plan to address the situation.”

“They have not been expelled, but they have been punished,” Newton told the paper. “This is not acceptable anywhere and anytime. ... At best, this is offensive to just about anyone, and at worst this is traumatic to some people.”

Newton declined to provide CNN or the Independent Mail with specifics concerning the punishment.

Anderson District 5 Superintendent Tom Wilson told WYFF that the students were “great students” that had never been in trouble.

“They realize these boys made a bad decision and there’s consequences for it, so they’ve been dealt with appropriately and we'll move forward,” Wilson said. “ It was just a bad decision that they made to put this offensive term that certain offends a lot of people, and that we agree was inappropriate and not what we want to represent Westside or District 5.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 11:15 AM with the headline "‘Rape.’ Really? 4 SC students punished for body paint prank gone wrong."