Let’s talk about a story that, on its surface, should be universally uplifting: a school in Maine forms a dance team with a mission to promote anti-bullying messages, inclusivity, and positivity. Sounds like a win, right? A creative outlet for students to build confidence and spread a message of respect.
Then enters the predictable, grinding machinery of online outrage. An account like Libs of TikTok slaps the word “grooming” on it. Just like that. No nuance, no engagement with the actual program or its goals, just a deliberate, incendiary label designed to trigger a panic and flood a school with hate.
This isn’t critique. This is weaponization.
Here’s my take: This pattern is now a depressingly standard playbook. Any activity involving youth—especially if it touches on themes of empathy, identity, or simply creating a safe space—is immediately scanned for potential to be slotted into a pre-written, fear-driven narrative. Dance? Teamwork? Anti-bullying? Irrelevant. The goal isn’t to understand; it’s to recast. To transform a simple act of student leadership into a sinister plot.
What gets lost in the toxic hashtags and the angry retweets are the actual kids. The ones who maybe found a place to belong in that dance team. The ones who heard an anti-bullying message and felt seen. The school staff who are just trying to build a better school climate now have to brace for a storm of bad-faith accusations and threats, draining time and resources from their actual mission: educating children.
This is the real bullying happening here. It’s not happening in the school hallway; it’s happening from behind anonymous screens and amplified by accounts that profit from perpetual anger. They are bullying educators, bullying programs of compassion, and ultimately, bullying the very concept of creating inclusive environments for young people.
The dance team’s message is simple: don’t be cruel. The online reaction is a masterclass in the opposite. It tells us that in 2026, some forces are so invested in a culture war that they will literally demonize kindness if it fits the narrative. They see community building and immediately think “conspiracy.”
As a news editor, I see past the inflammatory headline. I see a local school trying something positive. I see a national outrage machine that needs constant fuel, even if that fuel is the wellbeing of students and teachers. The true “grooming” happening here is the grooming of an audience to see malice in every act of decency, to distrust any institution fostering empathy, and to prioritize viral condemnation over factual understanding.
The kids on that dance team are probably learning a harder, more cynical lesson than any anti-bullying curriculum planned: that for some adults, spreading hate will always be easier than supporting a dance.
