'Battle of Sexes' Rally Prompts Outcry at an Arizona High School

By Bess Keller

The principal of a Tempe, Ariz., high school has spent much of the past two weeks apologizing to students and parents for a pep rally that sparked taunts aimed at females and included a boy and a girl wrestling in gelatin.

"We don't expect kids to come to school to be made fun of or be ridiculed so someone can have a laugh," Michael Gemma, the principal of McClintock High School, said he told the students in classroom visits.

He acknowledged that plans for the April 24 "Battle of the Sexes" rally--which was meant to raise school spirit--had gone beyond the bounds of good taste and that the event at moments had...