Olympia students say viral video isn't what Huffington Post thinks

A video shot by students at Olympia High School that appears to show classmates struggling to answer basic trivia questions received national attention this week when it was shared on sites like The Huffington Post.

However, the two 16-year-old journalism students who created the video said Friday they were only trying to make their classmates laugh and that things changed once the video was posted online.

The video, which was originally posted on the school’s website, features students answering questions such as, “Do you know the vice president of the United States?” to which some replied:

• “George Bush.”
• “The bald guy. He was gonna run and he – Clinton, right?”
• “I don’t know who it is. Somebody -- bin Laden.”

Here's the original video, in full:

Many commenters on The Huffington Post said the video showed a failed education system.

School district officials said the video doesn’t accurately reflect the strong academic performance of Olympia students.

“Olympia High School is one of the top five-percent performing high schools in the state,” said Ryan Betz with the Olympia School District.

Olympia High School juniors Austin Oberbillig and Evan Ricks, the student creators of the video, agreed and said their work had been viewed in the wrong light.

“The bottom line is we made the film to get a few laughs around school and it turned into something much bigger,” Oberbillig said.

“Once the whole country is looking at it, it’s a little different,” Ricks said. “It can get a little scary.”

The boys said they learned an important lesson about how quickly they could lose control of their message once it hit the internet.

“We’re gonna think about what we are sending off (and) if it’s gonna have any kickback,” Oberbillig said.

The boys also shared this statement:

"The video that we made as a school project has received a lot of unexpected media attention, and has been co-opted into an ongoing political debate that has become quite volatile.  It should be known that we filmed for several hours, during which time many students gave correct responses; the film represents a short segment of the most entertaining answers.   The bottom line is that we made the video to get a few laughs around our school, and it turned into something bigger.  It was not our intent to polarize people, set off a firestorm, or get people to point fingers.  Having said that, people will take from it what they will.  We want to continue our work as student journalists in a productive manner."

KIRO 7 South Sound bureau chief Richard Thompson interviewed Oberbillig and Ricks after they read their statement Friday: