Tennessee officials voted this week to censure a colleague who told a student “God, you’re hot” at a recent public school board meeting.
The Washington County Board of Education unanimously approved the censure of board member Keith Ervin during an emergency meeting Wednesday, following a petition and other public calls to remove the long-time representative of the school system’s District 1.
Ervin, a local dairy farmer, says he was entirely misunderstood.
In an April 2 board meeting captured on video that has since gone viral, Ervin told a female high school student next to him: “God, you’re hot. Do you know that? Damn. Where do you go to school at?”
The girl, who is a student member of the board and was blurred out in the footage, had just wrapped up talking about career and technical education when Ervin made the comment and put his arm around her, hugging her from the side.
Some other board members at the table lightly laughed, and the meeting went on.
Semi-rural Washington County, located at the northeaster tip of the state, is Tennessee’s oldest county. Its seat of Jonesboro ranks as the state’s oldest town with a population of roughly 6,000.
A school board censure is a formal condemnation of a member’s conduct but doesn’t remove a person from office.
At the Wednesday board meeting, locals spoke about their anger and disappointment and called for Ervin to step down.
Ervin read a prepared speech in which he said he hadn’t intended to offend anyone and claimed that his “hot” comment was misconstrued, according to news outlets’ coverage of the meeting.
The embattled board member said:
Obviously I’ve seen the clip. Look, I get it, if that’s all you’re seeing, I understand why people are reacting the way they are. But that’s not the full conversation, not even close. Last week at the board meeting I wanted to congratulate a student who did a great job sharing thoughts with all that was in the room.
When I mentioned she was hot, I meant she was on a roll, it was nothing to do with her appearance. As a lifetime supporter of David Crockett High school, I was especially surprised to learn that’s where she went to school.
Ervin added, “There was no disrespect meant and I apologize to her and her family for my comment reacting in the public for the incredible job she did as a student board member.”
Before he finished, a man in the audience yelled, “I watched it; you’re a liar,” according to an NBC report.
“How would you like your kid talked to like that,” one father told Ervin and his colleagues during the meeting. “We have to worry about our kids getting shot up in school and all this other stuff, right? But what we don’t need to be worrying about is the comments of a man to a minor.”
Ervin was elected in 2006 to represent the First District on the board. The board’s website describes Ervin as a self-employed dairy farmer and father of two daughters who graduated from Davy Crockett High School, also his alma mater.
Apparently, the recent incident was not the first time Ervin has gotten in trouble with his colleagues. In 2009 he was censured over a lewd sexual gesture he admitted to making in front of students and teachers at a public meeting, news outlet WJHL reported, based on a board memorandum.
Two board members read statements Wednesday urging Ervin to resign. Others said they believed he did not mean any ill intent.
Erwin, a Republican, is up for reelection this year.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
