Dear Society,
Back in the summer of 2019, the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Forest Grove decided to look at the security cameras located at the pool to research an on-going issue he was having at the pool. He believed that girls were showing off too much of their butt while wearing swimsuits at the pool. He took a screenshot of my butt as an example of what the problem was at the pool and put it on a shared computer drive. Then he started asking other people if they felt this suit was inappropriate. He said he was getting complaints about girls having wedgies while they swam and when they got out of the water. A friend of mine, who also worked at the pool, let me know that he showed her the picture. I started researching and found out that many other community members, former swimmers, athletic director at high school, and others had seen the picture of my backside.
I was very upset because no one should take a screenshot of a 14 year old girl's butt and then show it to about 10 other people. He was body shaming me. As I am swimming, I am working to become a better athlete. I am not worried about my appearance. The feeling of being used as a bad example made me feel self-conscious and sad.
My parents had multiple phone calls and meetings with him to explain their frustration. He said he was sorry and wouldn’t do it again. My Dad even spoke to the City Manager about how he wasn’t taking the complaint seriously. My parents then proceeded to have another meeting and told him to delete it and get rid of the folder on the drive and to apologize to me. He wrote a very interesting apology letter, a letter that you would get from a friend or someone who knows you well. Some girls from the swim team did go to the city council meeting and point out the unfair new pool rule. The city council did say he didn’t follow rule change protocol and they reversed the rule.
The sad part is that he didn’t even get in trouble for what he did. He has just made me self conscious of my body and how people look at me while I am in my suit. I can’t erase those feelings but he can just ignore that this event even happened.
-Anonymous
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