Ian Golba Hooters face mask school drama: Florida father defends fifth grade son wearing Hooters mask to Windermere school. Has a father gone too far?
What’s in the image of a mask anyway? What if that mask glorifies topless women? And the mask wearer happens to be an 11 year old boy attending fifth grade school…?
A Florida father has defended his ‘son’s right’ to wearing a Hooters-themed mask to school– despite the principal saying it was ‘offensive’ and making the eleven year old boy take it off.
‘He told me it was deemed offensive,’ Steve Golba said via Fox 35 Orlando. ‘I told him we go there as a family. We eat their wings, we watch sports. I said we have chocolate cake! We go there all the time. It is not an offensive mask.’
But is it really just about going to a ‘family restaurant’?
Ian Golba, has been wearing the face mask, covered with the name of the risque themed restaurant, to Sunset Park Elementary in Windermere since school began in August.
A 5th grader says he was told to take off his Hooters mask again today at school, because it’s offensive. His father says there’s nothing offensive about a restaurant.#Fox35 @fox35orlando pic.twitter.com/iKPXtJzeFQ
— Valerie Boey FOX 35 (@vboey) September 16, 2020
Defining what is appropriate vs inappropriate for an 11 year old boy
But on Tuesday, a teacher confronted him about it, WESH reported.
‘I wore it and she said it was not appropriate for school,’ the pupil told the outlet. ‘I asked her why, and she said, ‘If you really want to know why, go ask the principal.’’
The boy said he did just that.
‘[The principal] told me to take it off three times and I asked him why,’ the 11 year old said. ‘He said, ‘just take it off,’ so I took it off and I had to wear a different mask.’
Is dad playing dumb?
The principal told Ian the mask was ‘inappropriate because it expresses a woman’s body,’ he told Fox 35.
But Ian’s father thinks otherwise, holding the position nothing offensive or in bad taste is taking place.
‘I’ve never viewed it as anything but a restaurant. Do we feel women’s bodies are offensive? I don’t know. I don’t. The Principal told me that it was inappropriate. I said I don’t understand why it’s inappropriate. There’s nothing wrong with that mask,’ he father said.
Steve Golba insists the episode won’t stop him from taking his family to Hooters.
‘We do like the chicken wings. They have the best chicken wings,’ the father said.
Do you suppose?
A school district spokesperson while declining to discuss Ian’s specific case said masks are covered in the dress section of the Student Code of Conduct which forbids the 11 year old child wearing the ‘controversial’ mask.
