A Tennessee high school assistant principal has come under fire for posting a YouTube rant blaming female students for a new dress code policy banning athletic shorts because “they pretty much ruin everything.”
Soddy-Daisy High School’s Jared Hensley was placed on administrative leave after posting the video on the school’s official YouTube page on Wednesday to address the new dress code policy, according to local WTVC Channel 9 News.
In the video, Hensley explained that if students don’t want to get a detention, then avoid wearing athletic shorts.
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“Just don’t wear them. And if you really want someone to blame, blame the girls,” Hensley said. “Because they pretty much ruin everything. They ruin the dress code, they ruin, well ask Adam. Look at Eve.
“You can really go back to the beginning of time.” Hensley said, referring to the Bible. “”It’ll be like that for the rest of your life. Get used to it.”
The video has since been removed but not before his comments angered some folks.
A parent, whose daughter attends the school, told the news station that whether or not it was meant to be a joke, it was uncalled for.
“We have got to a place in our society where those jokes are just commonplace,” Jackie Dudley said. “And he just talked to a school full of girls and told them you mess everything up and you’ve done so since the beginning of time.”
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Hamilton County Schools District released a statement, calling Hensley’s comments about the young women “inexcusable.”
“We hold our employees and our leaders to a high standard, and these comments do not match the high expectations we have for our employees,” reads the statement. “We seek to prepare all children for success in life after high school and expect our employees to provide an atmosphere that will empower all children to reach their full potential.”
However, the senior class president defended Hensley, who is also a gym teacher at the school, saying she believes his words have been taken out of context.
“I would like to say that not once during the span of our class did he ever make any sexist comments or treat us any different because we were girls,” Paige Dunny said in an email to Channel 9 News. “While the comments he said were distasteful and uncalled for, I believe that he did not mean them and they have been taken out of context.”
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