An online photo of a group of high school water polo players in Speedos has sparked a heated controversy in Temecula, with the mother of one of the players calling for two school board members to resign for allegedly “sexualizing” the image.
The dispute was sparked two weeks ago when Sharon Sardina heard from a friend that her 17-year-old son was being discussed online.
Sardina’s son, a junior at Temecula Valley High School, had posed with five fellow water polo team members shirtless in their Speedos. The teens had written “B-E-A-R-S-!” across their chests in support of the school’s baseball team.
The team posted the photograph on a school Instagram page. It caught the attention of Temecula Valley Unified School District Board President Joseph Komrosky and member Jennifer Wiersma.
“Speaking of dress code…are our teams now an ‘OnlyFans’ crew? Hats off to the kids that kept their pants on,” Wiersma wrote in a caption for an Instagram story reposting the image of the students.
In response to the image, Komrosky reposted the district’s vision statement on his Instagram page.
“If they want to support the baseball team or any other team, they can do it by simply saying they do and looking like professionals,” he wrote in an Instagram comment. “My concern is that I do not want them to look like they’re in a sexually provocative strip tease looking like their one step close to the Chippendales. We don’t need that in our school district in our community.”
Others seem to agree with Sardina.
“If this is the jump, you shouldn’t be around kids,” Instagram user Stephanie Berry wrote in response to Komrosky’s comments on his Instagram post. “As a parent, it looks like swim boys being silly and supporting their friends. I’ll pray for your deviant minds.”
Sardina said she was furious when she learned of the school board members’ comments and has called for their resignation.
“They do not have the best interest of our kids right now,” she told The Times. “They’re putting our minors through a lot by sexualizing them. I want them to see the real issue is not about dress code. It’s about these two adults who have taken it to a next level and it’s sexual harassment at this point.”
On Tuesday evening, Sardina submitted a public comment during the school board meeting, asking that Wiersma and Komrosky resign.
“Tonight, I am asking this Board to finally recognize the seriousness of what has happened, hold the individuals involved accountable, and understand why so many of us no longer feel we can trust the leadership that was supposed to protect our children,” according to her written comment.
“I am asking for accountability. I am asking for integrity. And yes, I am asking for resignation, because leadership without responsibility is not leadership at all.”
Sardina said she also wanted to speak before the board on the subject but the board members wouldn’t let anyone talk, saying that they wanted to speak to lawyers first.
According to Sardina, Wiersma posted an apology on her Instagram story but she doesn’t think it makes up for the remarks because the story disappears after 24 hours. The Times did not review the apology.
In a statement to The Times, Komrosky said he thought the photo of the polo players was “inappropriate and their attire didn’t align with the district’s dress code administrative regulation.”
“I’m sure these are amazing kids and that they didn’t intend to cause harm with this post,” he said in the statement. “In the end, I would encourage them to ‘dress for success,’ as they will be our future leaders when they leave TVUSD.”
Sardina said her son was pulled out of class to speak to his school principal about the photo.
“He doesn’t feel like he can trust his school board members any longer,” Sardina said. “Trust has been broken but he knows he has a lot of good people behind him and backing him up. If something’s not done as far as reprimanding, what will that do to him as a student? This could be very detrimental to someone’s mental status.”
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