Indiana officials are cracking down on “6-7” – a nonsensical slang expression popular among Gen Alpha kids – by issuing “tickets” to students who can’t stop blurting out the silly saying in school.
In a spoof video shared Wednesday by the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office, school resource officers entered a local elementary school while discussing a new county ordinance passed by the sheriff that would ban “6-7.”
The term “6-7” comes from rapper Skrilla’s song “Doot Doot (6 7), which references a 6’7” basketball player. The phrase, which is spoken as “six seven”, is usually blurted out when “six” and “seven” are mentioned together. It comes with an accompanying “juggling” hand gesture.
The new Indiana “6-7” law states that the phrase, recently named “Word of the Year,” is now illegal to use. The sheriff’s department jokingly noted that the ordinance was passed to “keep parents sane during this time.”
Officers can be seen passing out tickets — which are fake — to students throughout the school after they excitedly say “6-7.” At one point in the video, an officer overhears a student say the phrase and enters their classroom to ticket them.
“It is now against the law to use the words ‘six’ and ‘seven’ unless using them in a math problem or someone’s age,” she said, as the students giggled.
Two students are later shown giving the officers a box of donuts – and getting excused from their tickets.
The end of the video notes: “No kids were harmed in the handing out of these tickets! This is not a real law and no real ticket was distributed.”
While the video may have been a joke, educators across the country have banned the term, saying it has caused too many disruptions in the classroom. Some educators are imposing consequences, from point deductions to essays, for students who use the term.
“I’ve been teaching for 20 years and I’ve dealt with all sorts of slang — nothing has driven me crazier than this one,” Adria Laplander, a sixth-grade language arts teacher in Michigan, told Today.com.
Laplander is so over it that she made a TikTok video explaining her form of punishment for any student who utters the word or performs the hand gesture.
“We are not saying the words, ‘6-7’ anymore — if you do, you have to write a 67-word essay about … what the word ‘6-7’ means,” Laplander said. “If you do it again, another 67-word essay. After five times, if you’re still saying, ‘67’ in this classroom, your essay is going to bop up to 670 words.”
Laplander said that having students write essays is a mild consequence meant to restore order in class, though some still shout “6-7” outside her door to provoke reactions. She says slang can help connect with students – but not when it disrupts learning.
The phrase has become so popular amongst Gen Alpha that Dictionary.com deemed it their “Word of the Year.”
“It’s part inside joke, part social signal and part performance,” Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, said in a news release.
“When people say it, they’re not just repeating a meme; they’re shouting a feeling. It’s one of the first Words of the Year that works as an interjection – a burst of energy that spreads and connects people long before anyone agrees on what it actually means.”
