Tenn. School board member says student ‘God, you’re hot’ during public meeting

need to know

• A Tennessee community is calling for the removal of a school board member who made “inappropriate comments” to a minor.

• Keith Ervin can be heard calling a female student “hot” during a live-streamed public meeting.

• “There’s a lot of context missing,” Erwin later said in 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 teenager as “hot” before putting 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 Erwin on one side and Washington County Superintendent Jerry Boyd on the other. After she shares some of her thoughts, Ervin touches her and enters.

“God, you’re hot, you know that? Where do you go to school?” he asked.

Minor told her that she participates in croquet.

Erwin defended his comments, claiming his actions were taken out of context.

“There was a student board member next to me, and we were talking, and she got up and was asking questions, and [she] Really impressed me and the other board members,” Ervin told WJHL on Friday, April 3. She was a top-notch student board member, and she was asking real smart questions. And I reached over, and I touched her shoulder, and I said, ‘You’re hot. You’re cool. You’re one of the best I’ve ever seen.’

During the meeting, board members discussed possible school restructuring, CTE education and curriculum.

“I didn’t mean any of it. She was just, she was on fire. She asked good questions, and I was bragging about her,” Erwin told WJHL.

“There’s a lot of context missing,” he added later. “You have to watch the whole meeting to see how impressive a student board member is. I don’t know what to say. I’m just, I’m impressed.”

“As far as a comment made by a board member, like any individual board member, whether it’s a vote they cast or a comment they made, they make it what they intended their comment to be or about the vote,” 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 comments” made by Ervin, WCYB reports. The board is expected to approve a motion to censure Erwin, leaders told the outlet.

“Mr. Ervin knows his motives, but we all must judge his words and actions. What we saw was shocking. He publicly objectified and degraded a young woman. No explanation can justify it,” board president Annette Buchanan said in a press release to WCYB.

The community is calling for more.

“As a member of the school board, he is responsible for the health, well-being, safety and education of our children,” parent Hilary Haley said, WCYB reported. “The performance he’s putting on tells me he shouldn’t be anywhere around our kids.”

There is also a planned protest “demanding the resignation of Keith Erwin” on Wednesday, April 8 at 4pm local time.

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The same post has a link to a Change.org petition calling for both Boyd and Ervin to be fired. More than three thousand people have signed the petition. However, Ervin is already seeking re-election and a school board member can only be removed with a successful recall election under Tennessee law, WCYB reports.

People reached out to Boyd and Washington County Schools for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

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