High School’s Awful ‘Prey and Predator Day’ Lets Guys Dress in Camo While Girls Dress in Animal Print

By Doug Barry | September 16, 2012 | 4:00pm

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Every high school student (except the boooooooring kids) looks forward to school-wide dress-up days like pajama day, maybe, or funny hat day, or novelty t-shirt day, or favorite 19th century mathematician day, to name just a few. The possibilities are simply endless, which means, as Crookston High School in Minnesota proved on Thursday with its “Prey and Predator Day,” that there are as many potentially awful dress-up day ideas as awesome ideas.

For “Prey and Predator Day,” students were encouraged/allowed to wear outfits that celebrate the sport of shooting woodland creatures. According to a news release, however, Crookston’s big celebration of hunting culture has different dress-up guidelines for male and female students: “guys dress in their camouflage and other hunting apparel while girls will show off their animal print.” Get it?? Like, okay — they guys are the hunters, right? And the girls are the hunted, because dating is a lot like pursuing a potential mate through the woods and then shooting her with a crossbow.

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Crookston residents were predictably upset by the high school’s god-awful idea of themed dress-up, so, at the last minute, high school officials changed “Prey and Predator Day” to “Camo Day,” which was the exact same thing only without an explicit reference to sexual assault. Although soon-to-be-Applebee’s-bartender and current superintendent Chris Bates said that “Camo Day” is just a fun caprice for the students (like Crookston’s “Pirate Pride Day” or “Jersey Day”) and people shouldn’t read too much else into it, he also acknowledged that naming it “Prey and Predator Day” was probably a stupid thing to do:

In hindsight and looking at it from a different light, a better decision should have been made. People might see it in a different way than it was intended. The change is good.

People like Ileanna Noyes certainly thought it was a shitty idea, and told the Grand Forks Herald so in the most concise way possible: “How absurd. How appalling.”

Crookston High School’s ‘Predator and Prey Day’ sparks concern [TwinCities.com]

Image via Jeff Banke/Shutterstock.