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WTOL video meant to encourage students goes viral, then is removed

WTOL video meant to encourage students goes viral, then is removed

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:00 p.m. to include comments from WTOL.

“Yeet! Stay Woke, be on fleek and get that Gucci breakfast.”

So said an anchor from WTOL-TV, Channel 11's, morning team during a recent seemingly well-meaning and unintentionally goofy web clip intended to encourage Toledo Public Schools Students during state standardized testing. 

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In the clip, news team members address local students using what is supposed to be their own language: 

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"Good morning, TPS students, it is testing week and it is time to slay all day," said anchor Melissa Andrews.

Since then, though, the clip has garnered an outpouring of social media reactions — much of it not particularly positive — and even the attention of national news outlets like The Washington Post, which in a headline said the clip “left viewers ‘cringing.’”

Meteorologist Chris Vickers and traffic reporter Steven Jackson contributed to the hip banter as well with separate "Okurrrrr"s, a reference to Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B's catchphrase, which she recently filed to trademark.

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The viral reaction the video churned, though occasionally positive, was mostly incredulous, sardonic, or worse. The Washington Post relied heavily on Twitter comments for its story.

“I feel like now is the perfect time to say: ‘Holy Toledo, what was that???’ "

“This is beyond stupid, Toledo. What idiot executive producer approved this?”

“Personally, I think it’s refreshing to see people enjoying their job & trying to make the news more interesting.”

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The clip, which was posted online Wednesday morning, was removed by the evening.

On Thursday, the station posted comments about the video to its website. 

The comments explained that the video was an effort to help TPS improve its performance on standardized tests by encouraging students to show up ready to go on test day. 

“The intent from the very beginning was to help TPS students take the tests and to get the district the funding it needs,” Brian Lorenzen, WTOL general manager, said in the statements “This was one of several messages provided by area leaders and media outlets meant to show support and provide encouragement.”

While the station admitted the video led to “cringy comments” leaders there said they also heard from teachers whose students responded well after watching the video, and even asked to watch it a second and third time.

First Published March 28, 2019, 4:44 p.m.

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