Should School Have Threatened Single Mom's Job Over 'Inappropriate' Bikini Photos?
“I know it’s overload of me in a bikini BUT I’m a 37 year old divorced, single mom of four and I’ve NEVER been anything but skinny and weak,” Mindi Jensen wrote on her Facebook page Oct. 11, showing off a video of her appearance in a fitness model show.
(Photo: Instagram/Minscakes)
And the Price, Utah, mother — who began bodybuilding after a bout of depression and has been sharing photos of her transformation on social media — remained just as proud a week later when administrators at the middle school where she teaches told her that they’d received a complaint about the images she was sharing on social media under pseudonyms. “These kids found it, and the parents were appalled by the pictures — they called it immodest,” Jenen explained to ABC 4. “They called it pornographic. They called the pictures inappropriate, and these are my fitness and show pictures in my sport, in my uniform in my bodybuilding sport.”
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The officials at North Sanpete Middle School in Moroni, Utah, then gave her the choice of making her posts private, taking them down, or being fired — yet she stood her ground. “I get comments and messages that it’s inspirational,” Jensen told Fox 13. (She didn’t respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.) “Women like my story and they’re following my story, and if I put it to private, then it’s not going to reach these people that might need and understand me.”
(Photo: ABC 4)
Jensen said as much to the school principal on Tuesday, she added, calling out the parents who lodged their complaint. “Why are my rights being taken away and not the child’s right?” she said. “It’s between the parent and the child. Put restrictions on your children. If you are not comfortable with seeing me in my fitness uniform on stage posing, then take that away from your kid. Don’t take it away from me.”
(Photo: Instagram/Minscakes)
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When the school board met Wednesday, it made a decision on the matter … in Jensen’s favor. “The district has cleared up any misconceptions” and will conduct training for parents on appropriate student Web use, North Sanpete School District Superintendent Dr. Sam Ray reportedly wrote in a statement. (North Sanpete Middle School administrators didn’t respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.)
“They apologized,” Jensen said, adding that now she’s more determined than ever to compete in her bodybuilding competitions and post photos of herself to inspire other women. “I feel like I’m good at it. I feel like I can go places with it. This is the first time that I have felt strong.”
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(Top photo: Instagram/Minscakes)
