By Hannah Parker
Online News Editor
The Culver City High School, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District administration, and the Manhattan Beach Police Department investigated Mira Costa senior Ryan Toomey and Culver City High School senior Justin Shump on Dec. 2 as they ambiguously advertised their own great anticipation for what turned out to be the Dec. 4 SoundCloud release of their self-produced Christmas mixtape.
Shump began advertising the mixtape on Sept. 30 by posting photos on his Snapchat story with the caption “December 4th.” Then, on Nov. 24 Shump posted a photo on Instagram everyday with a caption counting down the days until Dec. 4. Additionally, Toomey changed his Instagram biography to “Dec. 4”.
“Ryan and I’s hope was that people would remember the date and it would build hype for our mixtape,” Shump said. “After a month people started asking me questions like, ‘What’s happening December 4th?’ I would usually respond by saying, ‘just wait and see, it is going to be exciting.’”
According to Costa Vice Principal Jon Shaw, the Costa administration began investigating Shump and Toomey’s Dec. 4 whereabouts immediately after concerned students alerted the administration about the promotions. Costa administration referred the incident to MBPD and Costa’s School Resouce Officer John Loy. According to Loy, after talking to Shump and Toomey, he concluded that there is no criminal intent with the mixtape or their social media postings.
“Social media was not as prevalent decades ago, thus situations like this did not occur,” Shaw said. “Because of what is going on around the country and the world, Costa administration needs to take these types of situations seriously for the safety of our staff and students.”
Neither police departments or administrations punished Shump or Toomey. However, on the morning of Dec. 4, the Culver City administration announced to the school that Shump and Toomey’s anticipation was leading up to a mixtape. Likewise, the Shaw told Toomey to inform people about the mixtape and to stop posting. According to Shump, these precautions were taken due to the relative closeness to the Dec. 2 San Bernardino shooting.
“I never expected any of this drama to happen,” Shump said. “All I wanted was to build hype for the mixtape. I feel terrible that I inadvertently caused people to be scared for their lives. I would never want any of my actions to cause even a single person to live in fear.”
The mixtape, which Shump and Toomey released on SoundCloud, begins with an introduction that includes Shump and Toomey saying that classical holiday music is boring, and they want to “give the people what they need.” It is followed by four remixes of classical holiday songs such as “Jingle Bells,” “Sleigh Ride,” and “It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas.”
“I did not expect this reaction,” Toomey said. “But, I did learn that people make big deals out of little things.”
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