An online photo of a group of high school water polo players in Speedos has sparked a heated controversy in Temecula, with the mother of one of the players calling for two school board members to resign for allegedly \u201csexualizing\u201d the image.<\/p>\n
The dispute was sparked two weeks ago when Sharon Sardina heard from a friend that her 17-year-old son was being discussed online.<\/p>\n
Sardina\u2019s son, a junior at Temecula Valley High School, had posed with five fellow water polo team members shirtless in their Speedos. The teens had written \u201cB-E-A-R-S-!\u201d across their chests in support of the school\u2019s baseball team. <\/p>\n
The team posted the photograph on a school Instagram page. It caught the attention of Temecula Valley Unified School District Board President Joseph Komrosky and member Jennifer Wiersma.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeaking of dress code…are our teams now an \u2018OnlyFans\u2019 crew? Hats off to the kids that kept their pants on,\u201d Wiersma wrote in a caption for an Instagram story reposting the image of the students. <\/p>\n
In response to the image, Komrosky reposted the district\u2019s vision statement on his Instagram page.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want to support the baseball team or any other team, they can do it by simply saying they do and looking like professionals,\u201d he wrote in an Instagram comment. \u201cMy concern is that I do not want them to look like they\u2019re in a sexually provocative strip tease looking like their one step close to the Chippendales. We don\u2019t need that in our school district in our community.\u201d <\/p>\n
Others seem to agree with Sardina. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is the jump, you shouldn\u2019t be around kids,\u201d Instagram user Stephanie Berry wrote in response to Komrosky\u2019s comments on his Instagram post. \u201cAs a parent, it looks like swim boys being silly and supporting their friends. I\u2019ll pray for your deviant minds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sardina said she was furious when she learned of the school board members\u2019 comments and has called for their resignation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey do not have the best interest of our kids right now,\u201d she told The Times. \u201cThey\u2019re putting our minors through a lot by sexualizing them. I want them to see the real issue is not about dress code. It\u2019s about these two adults who have taken it to a next level and it\u2019s sexual harassment at this point.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Tuesday evening, Sardina submitted a public comment during the school board meeting, asking that Wiersma and Komrosky resign. <\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, I am asking this Board to finally recognize the seriousness of what has happened, hold the individuals involved accountable, and understand why so many of us no longer feel we can trust the leadership that was supposed to protect our children,\u201d according to her written comment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am asking for accountability. I am asking for integrity. And yes, I am asking for resignation, because leadership without responsibility is not leadership at all.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sardina said she also wanted to speak before the board on the subject but the board members wouldn\u2019t let anyone talk, saying that they wanted to speak to lawyers first. <\/p>\n
According to Sardina, Wiersma posted an apology on her Instagram story but she doesn\u2019t think it makes up for the remarks because the story disappears after 24 hours. The Times did not review the apology. <\/p>\n
In a statement to The Times, Komrosky said he thought the photo of the polo players was \u201cinappropriate and their attire didn\u2019t align with the district\u2019s dress code administrative regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure these are amazing kids and that they didn\u2019t intend to cause harm with this post,\u201d he said in the statement. \u201cIn the end, I would encourage them to \u2018dress for success,\u2019 as they will be our future leaders when they leave TVUSD.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sardina said her son was pulled out of class to speak to his school principal about the photo.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t feel like he can trust his school board members any longer,\u201d Sardina said. \u201cTrust has been broken but he knows he has a lot of good people behind him and backing him up. If something\u2019s not done as far as reprimanding, what will that do to him as a student? This could be very detrimental to someone\u2019s mental status.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zachary Miller, water polo coach at Temecula Valley High School, said in a statement that he is \u201chighly disappointed\u201d in the comments made by the school board members. <\/p>\n
\u201cI pride myself on how my teams represent themselves, and represent TVHS and TVUSD,\u201d he said. \u201cI have been coaching for over 10 years in aquatics and been around both male and female athletes in swim suits. It is my responsibility to remain professional at all times. If I or any staff member or teacher made those comments we would be ask to step down or be fired.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An online photo of a group of high school water polo players in Speedos has sparked a heated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[132086,11897,4579,8568,98530,110183,3410,132080,48,52,51,2500,47,50,49,132082,132079,132084,132085,132081,132083],"class_list":["post-315489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-17-year-old-son","tag-baseball-team","tag-district","tag-image","tag-instagram-comment","tag-instagram-story","tag-kid","tag-komrosky","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-leadership","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-school-board-member","tag-sharon-sardina","tag-speedos","tag-vision-statement","tag-water-polo-player","tag-wiersma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}