A Houston, Texas middle school is currently in hot water after a photo of a controversial quote posted above student lockers went viral. An employee of Gregory-Lincoln Middle School in Houston Independent School District (HISD) shared the photo on Friday, August 17th, via Twitter. As of today, August 20th, the tweet has garnered over 24,000 likes and just under 9,500 retweets.
Twitter user @lbeckman snapped a photo of the quote while attending teacher training at Gregory-Lincoln. Her tweet read, “This is the wall at Gregory-Lincoln Middle School in Houston ISD. It’s perpetuating horrible gender stereotypes, shaming women, and relinquishing boys of all responsibility. It’s sexist, [misogynistic], and discriminatory! I’m horrified.”
The questionable quote reads, “The more you act like a lady, the more he’ll act like a gentleman.” Hoo boy.
One parent of a HISD student, Tish Ochoa, told ABC News affiliate ABC 13 she believes the quote reinforces gender stereotypes. “I mean, look at the climate in which we’re living in,” Ochoa said. “We’re supposed to be teaching people to be responsible for their own actions. What is this teaching little girls?”
Many people who responded to the tweet shared Ochoa’s concern. The quote is basically telling young girls they can only hold themselves responsible for how boys and men treat them, which, hello, is not correct.
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One Twitter user edited the original photo, changing the quote to “The more you teach boys to respect girls, the more he’ll act like a gentleman.” That’s more like it.
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Another user changed the quote to “His behavior is never your responsibility.”
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Others just expressed how pissed off they are that the middle school had the audacity to post this quote in the first place.
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And although the concern surrounding the message fell on some deaf ears —
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— HISD decided to do what most consider the right thing: they removed the quote from the wall.
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The quote had reportedly been up for five years before anyone caught wind of it, HISD Trustee Diana Davila told ABC 13.
We’re glad someone finally drew attention to the quote before it negatively influenced any more middle schoolers.