Florida school returns a $20K donation because....

[HEMI6point1]

....It's from the owner of a strip club.

Link: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/201...ity-car-washes

Personally, if I'm the parent of a kid who goes to a school that's struggling I wouldn't care where the money is donated from.

ETA: Please don't turn this into a thread of "exploited women." As far as I'm concerned, they're doing it out of their own free will and make some good money doing it.

[telecom_goddess]

Wow.....yeah that's petty. The kids don't need to know it's a strip club And really if they just say donation from "name here" who's the wiser?

[MadMike]

Something like that happened in my area back in the mid 90s or so. Megadeth was doing a concert, and they were asking people to bring in canned food so the band could donate it to a certain local shelter. Unfortunately, the president of the organization refused to accept the donation. He was quoted in a newspaper article that the band's lyrics "promote drug use", and that they didn't fit into the organizations "Christian Philosophy."

(Note to self -- get the WTF smiley added on here.)

OK, first of all, I have all their albums, and there isn't one song that promotes drug use. Worse yet, Dave Mustaine, the lead singer, did have a problem with drug and alcohol use in the band's early days, but he was able to beat it. He had been clean for about 5 years when that article ran, which must have been a huge slap in the face to him. Personally, I think they would have had a case to sue the guy for libel, but I'm sure they had better things to do.

I wish that when and if the shelter ran out of food, he'd have to be the one to look the people straight in the eye and tell them, "Well, there was more food available, but it would have come from a band we don't care for." How does that fit into "Christian Philosophy?" They seem to have forgotten a certain part about not judging others.

There were two letters that in the editorial section a couple days later, slamming the decision not to accept the food. One of them happened to be from me. The shelter wouldn't change their decision, so the band just asked people to donate directly to a shelter of their choice.

[Android Kaeli]

The only thing I'll say about the strip club is that the women who work at one, really do make a good paycheck. From what a former co-worker said of a friend of hers that does work at a strip club as a dancer, is that even on a slow night that the girls there rake in about $700-$800, each.

Seriously, it's $20k that could've been used to help kids learn and get new stuffs -- why would someone pass that up? Hey, if the school doesn't want it, I'll take it -- I need a new AC and my car needs to be paid off.

However, if parents found out where the money came from, I bet that $20k most of them would raise a stink about it. Just because it came from a strip club, not because it might just help their kids.

[Cheshire]

The article states that the principal has not yet decided if she would return the money or not.

Regardless, she may be thinking returning would show integrity for the school, confusing it in this case with pride. A foolish mistake. It sounds as if the school could really use the money.

It's nice to see that this gentleman donates so much money on a regular basis, even if some choose not to receive it.

[HYHYBT]

A gift, unless there are strings attached, means the donor is supporting the cause, NOT the other way around.

[Cata]

Maybe if we could shake off all of this puritanical dreck about sex and sex workers, this sort of thing wouldn't happen. But because of the prevailing social belief that sex workers are "bad," it taints everything associated with them, regardless of how good the cause may be.

[telecom_goddess]

Maybe if we could shake off all of this puritanical dreck about sex and sex workers, this sort of thing wouldn't happen. But because of the prevailing social belief that sex workers are "bad," it taints everything associated with them, regardless of how good the cause may be.

exactly. Sex work has been around since humans began, get over it people.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Maybe if we could shake off all of this puritanical dreck about sex and sex workers, this sort of thing wouldn't happen. But because of the prevailing social belief that sex workers are "bad," it taints everything associated with them, regardless of how good the cause may be.

Tell me about it.

What amuses the hell out of me is just how bad we are repressed sexually here in the United States.

My favorite example is back in the early 90's, we did something really outrageous by having topless female nudity on a television show that was aired during PrimeTime.

Ooooh!

NYPD Blue had a scene where you say a woman's tits for less than a second. And that was supposed to be the height of our new decadent and immoral culture. In the 90's.

Back in the late 60's and early 70's you had shows like Monty Python's Flying circus that showed a woman nude from the front on for a goodly while.

Without looking at that episode again I can't remember how long it was exactly, but it was the season one episode where Michael Palin was this clueless person who couldn't notice anything that was happening around him. The store clerk was a very attractive brunette, completely without apparel, and was on screen long enough to notice that the carpet matches the drapes.

Then there is Benny Hill with the scenes of women getting their clothes ripped off as a prelude to or during a chase scene...

All of this in the late 60's, early 70's.

Then there is the fetish community in general. CSI catches a lot of flak from people getting their undies in a twist for showing the fetish community. Lady Heather in the early seasons as well as a lot of the stranger side of sexuality.

But in other countries, these same fetishes are more tolerated and less underground than they are here in America. One site that I can think of off the top of my head shows a lot of public nudity. Their shoots are European models doing mundane things in Europe. Going to a gas station and filling a car...nude, that sort of thing. And no one is really up in arms over it. The other people seeing this don't flip out and the few times police did show up, they usually didn't do anything other than make sure that the photo shoot was disrupting traffic or anything.

Try that in the US and heads would roll.

So yeah, we're some of the most sexually repressed people in the world. I really think that the main reason that the Puritans got the blessing, the funds and the ships needed to come to America...was so that England could get them the fuck out of their country so they could go back to partying without having to deal with Buzz Killington and his extended family.

[Ginger Tea]

So yeah, we're some of the most sexually repressed people in the world. I really think that the main reason that the Puritans got the blessing, the funds and the ships needed to come to America...was so that England could get them the fuck out of their country so they could go back to partying without having to deal with Buzz Killington and his extended family.

Given that statement and the fact Austrailia was a prison colony, makes me think we'll have to colonise mars to get rid of the chav's

...

Back on topic, if it was a gift with no strings attatched whats the harm?
Although try explaining that to the guys that threw Gary Gigyax (spelling) donation in his will back at his grieving estate.

It's not as if the guy had a clause insisting on polercise to be introduced so he could have new recruits already trained when they left school now is it?

[Greenday]

Back on topic, if it was a gift with no strings attatched whats the harm?

The same reason politicians would never accept the donation. Bad publicity.

What if some mafia offered a huge public donation to a school? Think they should accept it? Maybe, but it'd look REALLY bad.

[Akasa]

But it wasn't a public donation, it was a quiet donation that someone dug up and said "omg look its from a strip club!"

[Greenday]

Who dug it up? Obviously it was public enough that someone noticed.

[AdminAssistant]

Greenday makes a somewhat valid point, although a Mafia donation is more complicated, because that money *always* comes with strings attached. In this case, I think the principal should either take the money, or ask the reporter who "exposed" the ebil donation if he would be willing to make a donation of equal size. After all, his expose has prevented the school from making good use of the money, so he should be willing to compensate for that, right?

I'm certainly no fan of stripping or the men that promote it, but hopefully this money will improve the educational opportunities for a few girls who then won't need to turn to stripping for money.

ETA: I found a follow up: http://www.page2live.com/2011/01/28/...ft/#more-31886

They're keeping the money.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm certainly no fan of stripping or the men that promote it, but hopefully this money will improve the educational opportunities for a few girls who then won't need to turn to stripping for money.

It's this attitude right here that made the donation "expose worthy" in the first place.

If we'd stop having such absurd and bizarre hangups about the human body and sexuality in general, the world would be a better place.

^-.-^