YouTube Clips Show 'Hopkins' Students Smoking, Vandalizing Restroom

UPDATED 3:30 p.m. Feb. 13 to include a statement from the Hopkins High School principal.

A YouTube user Tuesday posted a video on the popular video-sharing site that it claimed were Hopkin School District students smoking on a school bus and chasing other students with flames from a lit aerosol spray can in a school hallway. Earlier videos showed a teen vandalizing a public restroom, a young boy smoking in Knollwood Mall and other acts.

One video—a 1-minute-39-second clip titled “Only at Hopkins”—showed a teen smoking in the back of a school bus while Amy Winehouse’s song “Rehab” played in the background. The bus driver later asks if anyone is smoking and threatens to check security cameras. The video ends with another student mooning the bus.

A video posted Jan. 20 called “Kneegoobers” opens with what appears to be an elementary- or early junior high-aged boy smoking in Knollwood Mall as he’s surrounded by teens. Later in the clip, a boy tries to kick a toilet paper dispenser off the wall of a public restroom.

The user is only identified as “KneeGoobers." However, a blog referenced in the YouTube post says it is, “A blog created by freshman as of 2012 who live the ‘kneegoose’ lifestyle. … Their lifestyle consists of (messing stuff) up, pissing people off, getting kicked out, having fun, photography, and much more.”

The school district released the following statement from Hopkins High School Principal Patty Johnson:

We have had the opportunity to view the videos and are currently investigating the situation. The actions taken by the students in the videos do not reflect the high expectations that we have for all Hopkins High School students. Any time we are made aware of or have knowledge of a discipline incident, we follow through with our practices and procedures.

As of 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, the videos had been recast as "private" on the YouTube user's account, which means the general public can no longer view the clips without the user's permission. Patch editors did view the videos prior to the reclassification.

Photos from the blog show them posing with items from Occupy Minneapolis and other Occupy movements. Another blog linked to in the YouTube post has numerous marijuana-related images, sexualized images and graphics referring to the Kony 2012 campaign.

In addition to the illegal acts, the videos also show a boy puking on the floor, jumping on top of Hopkins High School lockers, lighting fireworks in a bathtub and running away from people’s homes at night.

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