BROWNSVILLE (KDKA) – Several students from the Brownsville Area High School were suspended because of a video that was posted on YouTube.

The video shows the students doing the “Harlem Shake” dance. Thousands of interpretations of the dance have been uploaded to YouTube recently.

KDKA-TV’s Heather Abraham spoke with a mother of one of the 13 suspended students, who said the video was harmless.

Barb Yuhas said her daughter, a junior at the high school, was in a digital photography class and the substitute teacher gave permission to do the dance.

Abraham: They had asked permission to tape this?

Yuhas: That’s what my daughter said, yes. They had permission. And I guess she retracted saying that she gave them permission.

Yuhas was disappointed with the two-day suspension her daughter received, believing in-school detention would have been sufficient. Others disagreed.

“I think the children should have been suspended because they shouldn’t do that during school hours,” said parent Cindi Swords.

Swords also said that her daughter had a different opinion.

Jerry Davis, the solicitor for the school, said neither he nor the district could comment because of student privacy issues, but maintained that the principal has the right to discipline students who violate the disciplinary code or school policy.

Listed under the student disciplinary code on the Brownsville Area School District website, students can be suspended for obscene gestures or severe classroom disruptions.

The superintendent and principal did not return phone calls for comment Wednesday morning.

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