South Carolina school district apologizes after leadership event for boys and cheerleading for girls is slammed for being 'sexist'
The School District of Pickens County has come under fire after concerns were raised about a message sent at a character-building event.
The event, called Boys Ignite Summit and Girls Shine Retreat, took place at Pickens Elementary School for third through fifth graders on Tuesday, November 19, according to a WYFF report.
John Eby, communications director for the School District of Pickens County, explained that "in this case, we had an event that was designed to teach children about character value and leadership values."
The district explained in a Facebook post how boys learned about leadership from male role models and that girls learned from a cheer team about how to work together and help others shine.
However, the district apologized and announced the post was later edited to correctly say that both sexes learned about leadership and character.
Furthermore, boys were seen in photos taken by the district wearing business casual attire, while girls wore matching tops.
"The concern that came back to us was that there were some marked differences between those two events and that some of those differences may have reinforced some gender stereotypes," said Eby.
One parent Mariah Magagnotti, an industrial engineering lecturer at Clemson University, also raised concerns about the message. "I have taught the university level five years now," she said.
According to her, the event's perceived messages were concerning and that they could have an impact on the students.
"Women with high grades who will say they're going to leave engineering because they don't think they belong there or that they can't see a future for someone who is them," Magagnotti said.
"They can't see a future where they get to be an engineer and a wife or an engineer and a mom." However, the district clarified their true goal for the students.
"Any girl in our district can grow up to be what she wants to be and any boy can grow up to be what he wants to be," Eby said. As of now, the district is looking to be better in the future while it reviews what went wrong and what went right.