Jared Hensley, an athletic director/assistant principal at Soddy-Daisy High School in Tennessee has been put on administrative leave following sexist remarks he made during the school’s announcements last week. Hensley was addressing the school’s dress code policy, explaining how all athletic shorts are banned and will result in a detention, even if they go past one’s knees. Hensley then went on to discuss how boys at the school should blame girls for the new changes to the dress code and that girl’s “pretty much ruin everything”. He even went on to use Adam & Eve as an example. The video of the school’s announcements, which are recorded and posted to YouTube, soon went viral on the internet.
Following immense online backlash, the original video has since been removed. Dr. Bryan Johnson, the superintendent of Hamilton County School’s, even issued a statement, claiming the district “find the comments about young women in this video inexcusable,” and that, “the situation is under investigation, and [Jared Hensley] has been placed on administrative leave effective immediately.”
While many find the comments sexist and misogynistic, several students of Soddy-Daisy High School in Tennessee, are standing up for their Athletic Director. Some members of the community are even using the hashtag, #TeamHensley.
In many high schools (and other institutions), the dress code policy is a heavily debated issue. Many people think high school dress codes unfairly target girls and blame a girl’s outfit choice for boys misbehavior in school. Some students across America have even protested dress codes by having days in which large numbers of students wear clothes that specifically go against school policy. Other’s believe dress codes are enforced so that people won’t dress inappropriately, or “sexually”. But inappropriate and sexual are really hard to define, especially with children. Because high school and teen years are such a fundamental part of a person’s growth, high school dress codes can really shape how one will grow up and look at themselves. But regardless of anyone’s stance on dress code policies, Jared Hensley, a high school athletic director and assistant principal, said girls “pretty much ruin everything”, and in this day and age every stupid you say can haunt you forever.