The athletic director at a Tennessee high school was placed on administrative leave Wednesday after he blamed female students for a change in the school’s dress code, stating girls “pretty much ruin everything.”
Jared Hensley, the athletic director at Soddy-Daisy High School near Chattanooga, addressed a new school-wide ban on athletic shorts in a video posted Wednesday, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
{mosads}In the video, titled “A Helping of Hensley,” Hensley said students would no longer be allowed to wear athletic shorts — something with which the male students were not pleased.
“If you really want someone to blame, blame the girls, because they pretty much ruin everything,” Hensley says in the video.
“They ruin the dress code, they ruin … well, ask Adam. Look at Eve. That’s really all you really gotta get to, OK. You can really go back to the beginning of time,” he continues. “So, it’ll be like that the rest of your life. Get used to it, keep your mouth shut, suck it up [and] follow the rules.”
The clip was originally posted to YouTube but was later taken down, The Times Free Press noted.
Hensley was placed on administrative leave effective immediately on Wednesday after the video began circulating online, Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Bryan Johnson said in a statement.
“We find the comments about young women in this video inexcusable, as the sentiments expressed do not align with the values of Hamilton County Schools,” Johnson said.
“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. 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,” the statement continued.
Tucker McClendon, a school board member for District 8, told The Times Free Press that he would like to see Hensley issue an apology.
“I think it was a stupid thing to say. It was inappropriate message,” he said. “I would really like to see an apology to the women of Soddy Daisy and that staff and the women across the county.”
Rhonda Thurman, the school board representative for Soddy-Daisy in District 1, told the newspaper that the athletic director was just “trying to be funny.”
“There’s a lot going on right now to be worried about this in Soddy-Daisy. I’m having a real hard time getting upset about this. I’m not worried about that right now. He meant absolutely no harm by this,” she said. “This is so ridiculous. Can nobody take a joke anymore? He was just talking to the kids in their language and trying to be funny.”
The controversy comes amid a national conversation surrounding the #MeToo movement and heightened coverage of sexual assault claims being made against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
Danielle Mitchell, a Democratic candidate running for Congress in Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District, referenced Hensley’s comments in a Facebook post Wednesday alongside an article about Hensley being placed on leave. Mitchell, in her post, stated that such remarks contribute to a climate in which women are “scared” and are “taught” to believe they are at fault.
“This is why women don’t report, why women are scared, why women tend to blame themselves. This ideology is being taught in our schools,” Mitchell wrote. “It works its way into common spaces, and from a young age, far too many girls are taught that they aren’t powerful—that it’s their fault.”
“We must be better,” she added.