Parents are calling for Keith Ervin to resign, and Washington County Board of Education has scheduled an emergency meeting for April 8
Credit: WHJL/YouTube
NEED TO KNOW
- A Tennessee community is calling for the removal of a school board member who made an “inappropriate comment” to a minor
- Keith Ervin can be heard calling a female student “hot” while putting his arm around her during a live-streamed public meeting
- “There’s a lot of context missing,” Ervin later said during an interview
A Tennessee school board member is facing backlash after being heard calling a female student “hot” during a public meeting.
Parents and community members are calling for the resignation of Washington County school board member Keith Ervin after he referred to a teen as “hot” before placing his arm around her during a live streamed meeting on Thursday, April 2.
Since the student is a minor, her identity has not been disclosed.
The live-stream shows the student sitting at a large table among adults, with Ervin on one side and Washington County Superintendent Jerry Boyd on the other. After she shared some of her thoughts, Ervin touched her and chimed in.
“God, you’re hot, you know that? Where do you go to school at?” he asked.
The minor told him she attends Crockett.
Ervin has since defended his comments, claiming his actions were taken out of context.
“I had a student board member beside me, and we was talking, and she got up and was asking questions, and [she] just thoroughly impressed me and the other board members,” Ervin told WJHL on Friday, April 3. “I was. She was a top-notch student board member, and she was asking real smart questions. And I reached over, and I touched her on the shoulder, and I said, ‘You’re hot. You’re you’re good. You’re one of the best I’ve seen.”
The board members were discussing potential school restructuring, CTE education and the curriculum during the meeting.
“I didn’t mean nothing by it. She was just, she was on fire. She asked good questions, and I was bragging about her,” Ervin told WJHL.
“There’s a lot of context missing,” he later added. “You got to watch the whole meeting to see how impressive the student board member is. I don’t know what to say. I’m just, I was impressed.”
“As far as the comment made by the board member, just like any individual board member, whether it’s the vote they cast or the comments that they make, they need to be the ones to respond to questions about what their intent was in their comments or if it’s about a vote, they make it," Boyd said in a statement. "They need to explain, as elected officials, what was behind their vote or their comment.”
The Washington County Board of Education will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday, April 8, to discuss the "grossly inappropriate comment" by Ervin, reports WCYB. The board is expected to approve a motion to censure Ervin, leaders told the outlet.
"Mr. Ervin knows his own intentions, but the rest of us have to judge his words and his actions. What we saw was shocking. He objectified and diminished a young woman publicly. No explanation can justify that," board chairperson Annette Buchanan said in a press release, per WCYB.
The community is calling for more to be done.
"As a member of the school board, he is responsible for our children's health, welfare, safety and education,” parent Hillary Haley said, WCYB reported. “The display that he put on tells me he should be nowhere around our children.”
There is also a planned protest “demanding the resignation of Keith Ervin” scheduled for 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday, April 8.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The same post has a link to a Change.org petition calling for the firing of both Boyd and Ervin. The petition has over 3,000 signatures. However, Ervin is already seeking re-election and a school board member can only be removed by a successful recall election under Tennessee law, reports WCYB.
PEOPLE reached out to Boyd and Washington County Schools for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Read the full article here
