A Louisiana public school principal has apologized and requested leave for punishing a student and questioning her religious beliefs after he saw a video of her dancing at an off-campus party.

The 17-year-old student government president and scholarship candidate was videotaped dancing at an off-campus party following Walker High School’s Sept. 30 Homecoming festivities. A hired DJ took the video and posted it on social media. Three days later, Jason St. Pierre, principal of the public high school near the state capital of Baton Rouge, told the student she would be removed from her position with the student government association and that he would no longer recommend her for college scholarships.

At a meeting in his office with the assistant principal, St. Pierre told the student she wasn’t “living in the Lord’s way,” her mother said, according to The Advocate. He printed out Bible verses with highlighted sections and “questioned who her friends were and if they followed the Lord,” the news outlet reported.

In a statement published Sunday on the Livingston Parish Public Schools district Facebook page, St. Pierre reversed course. Citing the significant public attention the episode had received and more time to consider his decision, the principal apologized to the student’s family and undid his previous disciplinary plans. He also addressed his invocation of religion.

  • Nougat
    40•1 year ago

    My gut tells me that there’s some behind-the-scenes going on that we’re not aware of. I find it highly unlikely that someone who so brazenly punishes a public school student on religious grounds would reverse course so completely without some more sensible person in a position of authority doing a “U fukn wot m8?”

    Somebody grabbed that guy by the collar and told him exactly what he was going to do next: take the blame, apologize, and gtfo.

      • Nougat
        16•1 year ago

        Speaking as a “not-religious-people,” when I force my beliefs on people, it’s things like “We call people what they want to be called,” and “We don’t criticize people for things they didn’t choose.”

      • RobEnglish
        12•1 year ago

        This is the second time in this post’s comments that I’ve seen the idea that the pushing of religious beliefs into politics, into non-religious people, etc, is “starting” to become a problem.

        No.

        It is a problem.

        It is dangerous.

        It’s the reason for the repeal of Roe v Wade, leaving to such atrocities as a 10 year old child being forced to go out of her home state to abort her rapist’s baby.

        It’s the reason Republicans spent so many decades stacking the Supreme Court in the first place, to get outcomes like the above. Remember Mitch McConnell not letting President Obama appoint a replacement for Scalia? That had nothing to do with the people’s will and everything to do with conservative, religious beliefs.

        It’s the reason so many states are passing anti-LGBTQ laws, particularly anti-trans laws, putting queer people of all kinds at risk of violence, depression, and suicide.

        It’s the reason so many states are banning books and the teaching of accurate history. Suppression of knowledge carries with it a danger all its own.

        There is no “starting”. The danger is here. Now.

    • @[email protected]
      10•1 year ago

      Probably this guy was already on someone’s radar and they were just waiting for him to fuck around. Then they let him find out.