ALISO VIEJO – After a successful student protest, Aliso Niguel High School officials said Tuesday they will not block hip hop stars Macklemore and Ryan Lewis from appearing on campus.

Just before the lunch bell, principal Deni Christensen announced that a compromise had been reached with student leaders, re-confirming Macklemore’s Dec. 17 appearance. Students will need a permission slip signed by a parent to participate in the after-school interview session.

Students had been outraged Monday night and Tuesday morning when the school announced it had declined a $10,000 donation to the music program and the Macklemore appearance because parents had raised questions about lyrics in some of the Seattle rapper’s songs.

The $10,000 donation to the music program was also re-instated Tuesday.

Students found out Oct. 7 they had won the “Chegg + Macklemore & Ryan Lewis” contest, which required students to register on chegg.com, a textbook sales and rental website. Students say Principal Deni Christensen notified them Monday that the school had declined the prize because some parents said that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis support alcohol and drug use and misogyny in their music.

Chegg announced in a press release “it will go on as planned.”

“After careful consideration of varying viewpoints on all sides of the issue surrounding a possible visit by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, it is my hope that we have developed a plan that will meet the needs of our diverse students, ” said Deni Christensen in a prepared statement. In recognition of our students‘ efforts in winning this contest, and a desire to provide students the option of hearing a presentation regarding the music industry, the importance of music education and the arts, along with a Q & A session with the two artists, we will be holding this event after school hours in December.”

Quinn Darling, Aliso Niguel Associated Student Body vice president, used social media to push his classmates to enter the contest on Sept. 22, a day before it was set to finish. Darling and his friends took to social media again Monday to protest.

A petition to reverse the decision on change.org was posted at 8 p.m. Monday and had garnered 6,067 signatures by Tuesday morning.

“The one thing my peers, our parents and I want to convey is that we deserve a fair say in these decisions,” Darling said. “The ultimate decision was never publicized to parents or us, so even though six or however many parents who were initially against (the visit), there are maybe 300 parents who would’ve supported it.”

Another Aliso Niguel student shared one of Darling’s comments via Twitter, to which Macklemore responded.

Quinn said the Associated Student Body had picked a date for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis to visit, Dec. 17, and were already planning how to utilize the school’s gym to allow the greatest number of students to participate in the question and answer session with the musicians.

Contact the writer: 949-667-1933, cyee@ocregister.com and @ChrisMYee on Twitter