A Louisiana principal has taken the rest of the year off after attempting to force his view of Christian morality on a high school senior.
Jason St. Pierre requested leave from Walker High School in Walker, La., after apologizing to 17-year-old Kaylee Timonet for removing her as student body president and denying an endorsement for a college scholarship — all because of a video of her dancing at a homecoming party off campus.
According to the Livingston Parish News, the public high school requires all members of the Student Government Association to sign a form that says “any action deemed inappropriate by Mr. St. Pierre will also result in removal.”
Jason St. Pierre
The SGA form does not mention off-campus events and is vague in its language about the importance of “representing Walker High.”
As principal, however, St. Pierre apparently believed it was his duty to police “Christian” values in student government leaders.
The Washington Post reported St. Pierre summoned Timonet — a 4.0 GPA student — to his office and chastised her for not living up to “God’s ideals.” He printed out Bible verses and showed them to her, then gave her a “religious bracelet.”
Her mother claims the principal’s actions violated the First Amendment’s protections on freedom from religious discrimination and of the separation of church and state.
The student later told her story in a 3½-minute TikTok video that’s been viewed 1 million times.
On Sept. 30, Timonet and her mother attended a private party at a local country club. The DJ shot video of the student laughing and dancing with friends. The video showed her dancing behind a friend who was twerking.
“I didn’t see anything wrong with what my daughter was doing in the video,” her mother told the local news website Unfiltered. “My child was not representing the school in any way, shape or form at the party.”
“I was basically told that I need to change my morals and values because I was not living in God’s ideals,” Timonet said in the TikTok, adding the principal said he was “worried about my afterlife.” He also reportedly asked her if her friends “follow the Lord.”
In addition to removing her as SGA president, he rescinded his promised support for her college scholarship applications, one of which was due just days later.
As news of the punishment got out, residents of the small town outside Baton Rouge rallied to the student’s cause. Students staged a walkout, and parents have changed their social media profile pictures to silhouettes of a dancer with the phrase, “Let the Girl Dance” and “I stand with Kaylee Timonet.”
Despite St. Pierre’s later apology, the deadline for a key scholarship had passed.
“The damage that he’s done to her is done,” her mother said.
In his public apology, St. Pierre said: “While that conversation was meant with the best intentions, I do understand it is not my responsibility to determine what students’ or others’ religious beliefs may be — that should be the responsibility of the individual.”
Federal law prohibits religious discrimination and sectarian religious instruction in public schools.