Here’s something people forget about teachers: they have lives outside of the school where they’re tasked with watching over your brats educating the promising young minds of the future. They drink. They have sex. They — gasp — wear bathing suits. In other words, they do things other adults do.
The case of Mindi Jensen, a teacher at North Sanpete Middle School in Moroni, Utah, makes it clear that this is a difficult concept to grasp. Jensen, a divorced mother of four, was recently under fire after schoolchildren’s parents discovered her Instagram account. Outside of being a middle school teacher, Jensen also competes in body-building competitions. Her Instagram profile features several photos of her in athletic wear and bikinis.
A photo posted by Min Gunderson (@minscakes) on
Oct 15, 2015 at 2:06pm PDT
The mere sight of an attractive, fit teacher in a sports bra raised eyebrows and inspired pearl-clutching from the masses. Jensen told Good 4 Utah that “'[some school] kids found it and the parents were appalled by the pictures. They called it immodest. They called it pornographic. They called the pictures inappropriate, and these are my fitness, and show pictures in my sport, in my uniform in my bodybuilding sport.” Side note: People apparently don’t know what the word ‘pornagraphic’ means.
A photo posted by Min Gunderson (@minscakes) on
Aug 17, 2015 at 4:55pm PDT
School dministrators told her she could either remove the photos, set them to private, or get fired. She did neither, and the school district eventually extended an apology to Jensen. “Put restrictions on your children. If you are not comfortable with seeing me in my fitness uniform on stage posing, then take that away from your kid. Don’t take it away from me,” she told Fox 13.
A photo posted by Min Gunderson (@minscakes) on
Aug 4, 2015 at 3:45pm PDT
It sounds like her bosses got the message. The Daily Mail reports that the “North Sanpete School District superintendent said it has ‘cleared up any misconceptions with employees’ and will work to train parents on how to monitor their children’s internet usage. “
A photo posted by Min Gunderson (@minscakes) on
Oct 16, 2015 at 4:59pm PDT
It’s so nice when stories have a happy ending.