Kaylee Timonet Honor student at Walker high school, Louisiana loses scholarship after homecoming twerking dancing video surfaces as the community now ralies behind her.
In what was suppose to be an evening of innocence, laughing and dancing has turned into a nightmare for one Louisiana high school student after being stripped of a scholarship endorsement after school administrators caught wind of a video of her twerking at a homecoming after-party last week.
Kaylee Timonet, 17, a senior at Walker High School in Walker, La., with a 4.2 grade point average, was also told by her school that she was being removed as student government association president, following video of the evening being being shared on social media.
The video, which has since been deleted, reportedly showed the teen twerking’ at the ‘private’ after-hours event, at Livingston Parish Country Club on Sept. 30, the Advocate reported.
Following God’s ideals
The DJ who played the party — and filmed and posted the video — told Unfiltered with Kiran that the dancing was harmless.
‘How those kids were dancing was not bad. I have seen much worse,’ DJ Savage said. ‘It was genuinely kids having fun.’
That was not the way Kaylee’s school saw it.
Timonet was called into the school’s front office on Tuesday morning and reduced to tears as principal Jason St. Pierre made her watch the video, the teen told Unfiltered.
‘They basically told me I should be ashamed of myself and that they were concerned about my afterlife if I wasn’t following basically God’s ideals, which made me cry even more,’ she said. ‘I felt like my life was over.’
St. Pierre also informed the star pupil he was withdrawing her application for the scholarship, which only goes to two students each year.
‘All I was doing was having innocent fun. I was mortified,’ Timonet said.
Living in the Lord’s way
Her mother Rachel Timonet who had also attended the after party also had her own meeting with the principal on Wednesday. The parent has taken exception to the ‘unfair’ punishment meted out to her teenage daughter.
‘They had other people dancing in that video also that are on the dance team that nothing happened to. He said she was punished because she is the ‘hood-ornament’ of the school,’ the mom told Unfiltered.
‘They said they didn’t want her representing Walker High School. She was totally shocked,’ the mom said. ‘He told her she wasn’t living in the Lord’s way and questioned who her friends were and if they followed the Lord.’
Rachel Timonet said St. Pierre printed out Bible verses and highlighted sections. Most devastating to Kaylee, he told her she was no longer eligible for student of the year.
‘Her entire life she’s worked toward that,’ Rachel Timonet said. ‘She said she really felt she didn’t think anything was wrong in the video, but at this point she said she really felt like a complete failure.’
‘Christianity as a device in bullying children’
The mom also took St. Pierre to task for allegedly questioning her daughter about her religious faith.
‘It’s a public school, not a private school. He has no right to discuss any sort of religion with my child,’ the parent told Unfiltered.
The school’s actions has ignited outrage and disbelief in the Livingston school district. Parents have decried St. Pierre’s actions, comparing them to the movie ‘Footloose.’ Some have made T-shirts that say ‘Let the Girl Dance’ and ‘I stand with Kaylee Timonet’.
Others have decried what they regards as school over-reach and who gets to decide what qualifies as ‘Christian’ behavior. Others meanwhile have advised Kaylee to ‘lawyer up’ against the school.
‘I am a Christian. I love that most teachers use our beliefs as a reference for the kids to go through life. But when you use it to bully and dictate children, it’s wrong,’ Natalie Bird, who manages the What’s Going On In Walker, LA Facebook page wrote.
The groundswell of support, Timonet says, has been a key part of helping her move past the ‘humiliating’ incident.
‘The video was not inappropriate whatsoever. I was just so afraid that people were going to hate me after that, so seeing that people were supporting me no matter what and seeing that my accomplishments were still noticed means the world,’ she said.
Delia Taylor, a spokesperson for the Livingston Parish School District, said the district plans to investigate the situation, but said she could not comment further.
Walker is a small town with a population of around 6,100 and is located about 22 miles from Baton Rouge.
