SODDY-DAISY, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee high school official posted online a video banning athletic shorts, saying "blame the girls, because they pretty much ruin everything."
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the athletic director and assistant principal of Soddy-Daisy High School, Jared Hensley, posted the video addressed to students online Wednesday morning. It has since been taken down, and Hamilton County Superintendent Bryan Johnson says Hensley has been put on administrative leave.
Hensley continues on in the video to say "Ask Adam, look at Eve ... you can really go back to the beginning of time," adding that "it'll be like that the rest of your life." The video prompted immediate backlash, with social media users calling for followers to report it to county school officials.
Johnson says the school is investigating.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that amid the backlash, the hashtag #TeamHensley is spreading, with some calling the comment a joke taken out of context.
An English teacher at the school, Link Sparks, added the hashtag to his Facebook profile, and wrote that if Hensley "sarcastically joked about girls not following the SDHS dress code, I'm sure that what he said needed to be said."
Senior class vice president Paige Dunny called Hensley "one of the most caring members of the Soddy-Daisy High School faculty," but she also said his comment was distasteful and shouldn't have been said in the first place.
The hashtag #TeamNoExcuses also grew Thursday, with users saying Hensley should be held accountable.