San Dieguito (Calif.) Union High School District students and administrators are in an uproar after Canyon Crest Academy’s high school foundation rented out its school gym as a commercial filming location for an adult game show last weekend.
As reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune, the event featured racist, profane, sexually suggestive, religiously offensive and other inappropriate content.
"The outrage comes just as the school district ponders stricter oversight for the four foundations that raise money for its four high schools, and that are allowed to rent out school facilities and pocket the revenue," wrote Kristen Taketa for the Times-Tribune. "Those nonprofits, run by their own staff and volunteers, have operated for years with no formal district oversight or requirements."
The rental was approved Oct. 9 amid assurances that the content would be "PG-13." The rental fee has not been made public, but the district’s posted facility fee schedule indicates that renting a school gymnasium costs $3,000 a day for commercial use.
According to Taketa, the show was produced by an online content company called PaymoneyWubby and by Fansly, a subscription-based social media platform for adult content, according to social media posts about the event.
One such post made during the shoot shows the Canyon Crest Academy logo on a chair in the school’s weight room, and the streamed video shows the school’s raven mascot on a wall in the back of the gym.
The premise of the show, called “24-Hour Tag,” was that four contestants had to “survive” for 24 hours in the school gym and endure “punishments” if caught in games of tag. The show was broadcast live on the streaming platform Twitch, per Taketa's reporting.
At various points, the male contestants used profanity, wore sashes with phrases including “botched penis” and “pedophile,” licked chocolate fondue off of women’s feet and enacted a mocking parody of the crucifixion of Jesus, Taketa reported.
They also gave a PowerPoint presentation with slides showing racist statements, such as: “What does a White man in America face today? Too much Spanish, Black history month (as a whole), Trader Joe’s, China.”
Throughout the show, the activities were assisted by scantily clad women.
The company behind the event defended itself in response to questions from the Union-Tribune.
“We had a wonderful and very successful event that fully complied with our contractual agreements. Based on threats of litigation made by other parties, I cannot comment further at this time,” an officer of PaymoneyWubby said in an email.
The San Dieguito district said in a statement Monday that it was the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation — a nonprofit separate from the district that raises money for the high school — that had rented out the gym.
“We understand that the production company filmed a game show with highly inappropriate content that appears to have violated the terms of the agreement between (the foundation) and the production company, as well as the district’s community standards and policies,” the district said, as reported by the Union-Tribune.
“While school sites are intended to be a civic center available for public use, such use is not without limits, and our top priority is always the safety and support of our students.”
Per Taketa's reporting, the district added that it is considering pursuing legal action against “the parties involved to hold them accountable for the egregious conduct on our school campus.”
The foundation said the production was “in clear violation” of the foundation’s facilities use license agreement. Executive director Regina Twomey said the foundation sincerely apologizes to the school community and said it “ultimately failed to ensure proper oversight.”
“We are fully committed to implementing stronger internal protocols, enhanced review processes and additional safeguards to ensure that nothing like this happens again,” Twomey said. The foundation is working with legal counsel to review what happened and mull potential action regarding the production company.
According to Canyon Crest Academy’s facility use terms, it’s up to the school custodian to ensure that outside parties using the school facilities follow district rules, as well as to report rule violations to the superintendent.
"Those terms ban profane language, tobacco, intoxicants, narcotics, fighting, gambling, quarreling and the distribution or posting of materials that promote any crime or activity prohibited by law," Taketa wrote. "But the terms do not otherwise outline rules about appropriateness of programming content.
"Meanwhile, the school district’s facility policy says facilities shall be made available as a civic center for use by citizens and community groups, including for public agency meetings, religious services, recreational activities like sports, disaster shelters or ceremonies held by veterans’ groups."
Taketa further reported that the district’s rules say school facilities cannot be used for any crimes or acts prohibited by law, drug activities or “any use which is inconsistent with the use of school facilities for school purposes or which interferes with the regular conduct of school or school work.”
The filming incident comes as the San Dieguito school board is now considering a memorandum of understanding that would enforce transparency and operations requirements for foundations. The audit was prompted by two former Canyon Crest Academy students who had investigated their school foundation’s financial practices, Taketa reported.
"Among the reforms proposed in the draft MOU is the revocation of a controversial privilege the foundations have enjoyed for years that has let them rent out the district’s school facilities to outside parties — and keep the facility fee revenue," she wrote. "The latest draft of reforms would return that responsibility exclusively to the district."
