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See this high school principal's pandemic parody of 'Can't Touch This'

The principal says that using humor to cope with the coronavirus helps. And he has been practicing those MC Hammer moves since the 1990s.
/ Source: TODAY

A high school principal’s parody video about the stresses of school during the COVID-19 pandemic really is a mood. Quentin J. Lee’s take on “Can’t Touch This” embodies all the frustrating realties of back to school 2020 with the perfect amount of humor partnered with M.C. Hammer’s catchy song.

Lee told TODAY's Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin that he enjoys "just coming up with fun innovative ways to get the message across and have a little bit of fun with the students and let them know that creativity never stops."

This follows a long tradition of him using music videos to inspire students and the community.

“Doing silly stuff is something I really enjoy,” Lee told Alabama News Center. “I released a song in May about my feelings toward COVID, and it was just me sitting at my desk screaming. It made national media, and I figured it was time to do something different.”

Lee, the principal at Childersburg High School in Alabama, added that he wrote the lyrics in just 15 minutes and then asked City Vizualz to help record it. He wanted people to understand that school will be different, but he and the staff are making the right choices to keep everyone safe.

"We are coming back to school but this is just a fun way to kind of reinforce the rules and making sure we’re getting buy in from our students and our communities," he told TODAY.

Throughout the video, he sings lyrics such as “Coronavirus hits me so hard, all the teachers say, ‘Oh my lord.’ COVID is stressing me, all the updates from the CDC.” All the while he dances, takes student temperatures, sprays things with Lysol and prevents students from using the water fountain.

“We take COVID-19 very seriously but wanted to bring some comic relief to a tough situation,” the high school said in a statement on its website. “We can’t wait to have our students back on campus.”

According to Alabama News Center, teacher Jessica Veazey and students Zay Youngblood, Jaden Robinson and Aniyah Oden volunteered to help with the video, which included a memorable moment where Lee does a MC Hammer shuffle with a tape measure to assure they’re standing six feet apart.

“Zay said there was a zero percent chance of him dancing. They played their parts to a T. It was just fun to hang out, and they did phenomenal," Lee said.

The principal also shows off his running man several times and performs several socially distanced choreographed dances with Youngblood, Robinson and Oden.

“I love to dance, and I remember trying to mimic all his dance routines,” he said.

Since Tuesday the video received nearly 3 million views. While Lee enjoys the attention and how the video helped him reconnect from friends from the past, he said he really wanted to create the song and video to encourage students.

"We are working tirelessly to make sure school is a place where students can be accepted, loved, and clean,” he said “Everybody needs love, regardless of political party or ethnic background. If we can allow people to laugh and forget about their problems, then we’ve accomplished the goal.”

Besides, he wants students to realize that masks, hand washing and social distancing are awesome.

“We have got to make safety a cool thing,” he said. “If we don’t see the warning signs, we’ll be doomed for destruction.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on August 3, 2020, and was updated on August 4.