A former Tennessee student is speaking publicly for the first time about the distress she says she felt after a school board member called her “hot” during an official public meeting.
Hannah Campbell attended the Washington County School Board meeting on April 2 to share research she had conducted on district schools. During the meeting, board member Keith Ervin put his arms around the teenager and made the inappropriate comment.
“God, you’re hot, you know that? Where do you go to school at?” the middle-aged man asked her.
About a month later, Ervin was charged with assault — physical contact in connection with the encounter and the widely criticized remark.
Reflecting on what happened, Campbell said she came to understand that “nobody should ever be treated that way in any type of setting” — particularly in a professional environment where people should feel safe.
“And that just makes me feel like more people should understand that some mistakes can’t afford to be made, especially seeing the reputation not only Washington County has gotten after that, but Tennessee as a whole,” she told WJHL.
Campbell, who graduated from high school in the spring, said the attention surrounding the incident has also overshadowed the accomplishments of other students. “And I just don’t think that that’s fair because we have so many amazing students doing amazing things, and it’s getting overlooked because of one incident,” she said.
Still, Campbell emphasized that she does not want to downplay what happened, saying she does not want to “minimize” the incident “because it was awful.”
Hannah Campbell spoke out publicly for the first time about the trauma she experienced when a school board member called her ‘hot’ during a public meeting
Keith Ervin put his arms around the teen and made the crude remark on April 2
In the aftermath, the local community rallied around Campbell and her family, her mother, April said, describing how she started receiving messages of support from people she didn’t even know.
‘And so the community support is what really got the whole movement started,’ she claimed. ‘It wasn’t us. The community did that. The other people did that. We didn’t start that. They did. They got it rolling. We had very little that we even had to do. We just showed up at a couple meetings to meet some people and they did it.
‘It was amazing because we were dealing with a different emotional roller coaster and they took the reins to be like “We will push for this change and get it started.”‘
Some parents then demanded Ervin resign or otherwise be forcibly removed from the board as school officials said his conduct was under review.
He was ultimately censured for his behavior but was allowed to retain his seat despite public outcry and a letter from David Crockett High School students expressing their discomfort with him.
For Campbell, that slap on the wrist was a wholly inadequate measure, and she gave the board a piece of her mind on May 7.
‘Gaining global attention for sexual comments and assault is not the reputation that Washington County deserves,’ she said, referencing the widespread media attention Ervin’s actions received.
‘Everyone on this board shares that blame, as does every voter who put you into office,’ she continued. ‘I believe that you are all cowards.’
Campbell read a scathing statement during a livestreamed board meeting on April 7. Ervin can be seen (third left) without other board members sitting next to him and listening with his arms crossed
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The teenager went on to call Ervin’s actions ‘unwelcome,’ ‘sexist’ and ‘derogatory,’ and she said that the board’s ‘failure to act… was and is equivalent to his actions, and it has hurt me just as much.’
She also called out a religious argument used by several board members to justify their soft-touched discipline of Ervin and blasted ‘those who used their god as a cop-out for forgiveness.’
‘I do not forgive you, and I do not accept your fake apologies used to protect yourselves,’ the teenager continued.
Campbell now admits she ‘was a little nervous’ before she went up to the podium that night, ‘but after I saw the impact that it made, it was so beyond worth it.’
She now hopes people are more aware of what is said behind closed doors and who they are electing to represent them, ‘and not just voting for them because they’re your friend or because you know them around town.’
At the same time, the high school graduate is encouraging other students to get involved and make their voices heard.
‘Age should have no influence on… how much your opinion matters,’ Campbell asserted.
Campbell and her mother, April, told how the community rallied around their family
Ervin was ultimately censured for his behavior but was allowed to retain his seat
Ervin has previously defended himself by saying that his statement was misconstrued and previously told NBC News: ‘When I mentioned she was hot, I meant she was on a roll. It was nothing to do with her appearance.’
In April, Washington County Board of Education Chair Annette Buchanan released a public statement that said, ‘Mr Ervin has explained that he meant nothing offensive and that we have simply misunderstood his intentions.’
She also said, however, that ‘Mr Ervin knows his own intentions, but the rest of us have to judge his words and his actions,’ which she called ‘shocking’ and ‘grossly inappropriate.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Ervin for comment.
