MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A video that appears to show gambling inside Hamilton High School during school hours is being questioned by parents and investigated by the school district.
The Memphis rapper “BlocBoy JB” is the one who took the video this week.
The Facebook Live video shows young men throwing down dice and money.
The video mentions Hamilton and the more you look at it, you see signs of a school athletic office with no teacher in sight.
“During school, they can’t watch everything,” said Cedric McGhee.
Some questioned why a group of young men would be alone in a teacher’s office, seemingly gambling.
“Where’s everyone? The supervisors who are supposed to monitor the kids? It doesn’t make sense at all,” said parent Shantae Matthews.
“If you’re in school, you should always have some type of supervision,” said parent Latanya Jones.
BlocBoy JB, the rapper who took the video, admits they were in a faculty member’s office at Hamilton High School during a pep rally Wednesday.
“How did you get into that office?” asked WREG’s Bridget Chapman.
“They let me in,” he said.
He says he was in there with friends unsupervised but says they weren’t doing anything illegal.
“It looked real,” he said. “It was real, but they weren’t playing with that money for real.”
He says he was getting ready to perform at the Hamilton High pep rally for homecoming week — Something he says he’s doing for multiple Shelby County schools.
The Shelby County School District says their security team is reviewing the video and just got hold of it Friday.
But JB says it all got blown out of proportion and he still feels he’s a role model.
“I apologize to anyone who was upset about the video, but it really wasn’t what they were looking at and seeing,” he said.
The district released the following statement:
“The District is investigating the circumstances surrounding this video to understand the facts. The illegal activity seen in the video violates state law and school policy and will not be tolerated.”
WREG also brought up with the district how many of BlocBoy JB’s music videos contain guns and expletives, asking what their criteria is for homecoming performers.
A spokesperson said they’re looking into all of this and will get back to us.
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