Created by students at Scripps Ranch High School in the conservative Northeast San Diego area (it's both a National Blue Ribbon and California Distinguished school), the video depicts scores of female students engaged in the dance known as "twerking," which has been described as "the rhythmic gyrating of the lower [body] in a lascivious manner with the intent to elicit sexual arousal or laughter in the intended audience."

While students have expressed outrage at being so severely disciplined for the video (which was produced on campus for a media class), the school's student handbook explicitly prohibits "verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature made by someone from or in the educational setting." The video was shot and edited on school property.

DJ/producer Diplo, who has been closely linked to the twerking phenomenon with the hashtag #ExpressYourself (which is also one of his song titles) that solicits pictures and videos of female fans doing the dance, has weighed in the controversy via his Twitter account.