Stutznegger leads multitude of students to “do the Harlem Shake”

Elise Brown
February 22, 2013

“Do the Harlem Shake!” heralds the transition, in the hottest new YouTube meme, between a group of people statically standing around and bursting into the eccentric dance of their choice. Preston Stutznegger and Cole Schaffer, seniors, brought this meme to campus, organizing students in front of the main doors during lunch on Feb. 16.

“I think we had 250, 300 students come,” Stutznegger said.

Schaffer introduced the “Harlem Shake” meme to Stutznegger in January and suggested that they create a version of their own. Stutznegger created a Facebook event about a week before Feb. 16 to let students know about the planned video.

“It was Cole’s idea,” Stutznegger said. “I just put it into action.”

Students were told to bring costumes and props, the absurder the better.

“I saw a guy with a sumo costume. That was fun,” Stutznegger said. “There was also a guy with a cow costume and a girl in a bunny suit and a guy in a morph suit.”

Stutznegger is thankful that the video was fairly easy to organize and that teachers and administrators had no problems at all with the video’s production.

“We were running around with a megaphone, and the administrators were amused,” Stutznegger said. “The teachers mainly stood behind us while we were filming and took videos on their cell phones.”

The filming brought many students together, and Stutznegger is glad that he organized it “just to do it; just for fun.” This is the first time he has brought such a meme to West Linn High School, but he does not think he would do such a project again.

“A one-time thing like this is fun and good,” Stutznegger said. “If you try doing it more than once, people don’t get as fired up.”

As of Feb. 22, the YouTube video “Harlem Shake West Linn High School” has upwards of 4,750 views.

Donate to wlhsNOW

$1030

$2000

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of West Linn High School. Your contribution will allow us to continue to produce quality content by purchasing equipment, software, and continuing to host our website on School Newspapers Online (SNO). Additionally, donations will go towards paying for the physical editions of our Amplifier. Donations of $20 dollars (as of Oct. 15, 2025) or more will receive a subscription to our Amplifier, which will be mailed to the donator's address (donations made with the intention of purchasing a subscription CANNOT be anonymous).

About the Contributor

Elise Brown, Co Editor-in-Chief

Elise Brown, senior, has always felt comfortable standing up and giving her opinion in front of everyone and for the most part, she enjoys it very much. That is one of the many reasons why she heads the debate team, and also why in June she earned a place in the National Speech and Debate Competition in Indianapolis.

Out of the 250 people entered in the competition, she finished 151st in the country. Before she earned her rightful place in Nationals, however, she needed to prove herself in Districts and State.

Her 10 minute long speech about socialism and its benefits took first and second in Districts and State, respectively.

“In the National competition the judges didn’t appreciate politics or controversy as much as they did in Districts and State,” Brown said. This was confirmed from one of the judges she conversed with in order to find out what she could do better.

Brown’s interest in current events started in the eighth grade. She then did the Amplifier, the high school newspaper to help communicate her ideas about the world with her fellow peers, she also did the debate team to better understand the problems throughout the world and learn how to solve them somewhat.

“Debate involves knowing what is going on in the world,” Brown said.

This year for upcoming competitions, she has a speech in the works that she feels will top her last one. This year’s speech is about interdependence inspired by the “you didn’t build that debate,” caused when President Barack Obama told business people that they did not create their businesses on their own.

Brown’s passion for debate has influenced what college she will go to, what she will study in college, and what she wants to do in her life. Brown’s goal is to graduate high school and then travel to Massachusetts and attend Wellesley College, a very well known and prestigious college, where Brown hopes to study political science.

To achieve this goal she has taken part in a number of rigorous courses and activities such as Speech and Debate, AP Government, AP Economics, Honors Law, AP English and journalism. Once Brown achieves her education goals, her next goal is to become a political commentator.

“I want to change people’s minds,” Brown said. Brown has chosen the path to become a political commentator because she believes political power lies with the media.

Brown has worked very hard throughout high school and continues to work hard through her senior year. She has taken many challenging courses to achieve her goal of going to Wellesley, and will need to continue down the very rigorous path to success to accomplish her goals.