Slurs Directed At Hinsdale South Principal: Message

DARIEN, IL – It's the first week of school at Hinsdale South High School for the new principal, Patrick Hardy.

On Thursday, he emailed a lengthy message to the South community about his impression of South. In short, it's not good.

His statement was unusually blunt for a school official. Gone was the public relations filter often seen in Hinsdale High School District 86 and its counterparts in the area.

In his statement, Hardy, who is African American, said young people at last Friday's football game called him the N-word and gay and essentially characterized him as a pedophile twice.

During the game, Hardy said a young man was displaying his underwear, which had a large printed yellow smiley face on the back. The principal said the person made sure his pants were down and his top was up, so the underwear could be seen.

"When I introduced myself and asked him to pull his pants up or shirt down to cover his undergarments, he responded by stating, 'You're a grown man. Why are you looking at my a**?' Another student yelled from the crowd, 'He a gay a*s n****! (n-word),'" Hardy said.

Hardy said he also asked a "young lady" wearing a fishnet top with no undergarments to "please cover with the shirt she had tied around her waist."

"Her initial response was, 'You are a man. Why are you looking at my breast, you pedophile?' Both eventually cooperated. Other staff assigned to the game said they were surprised I even tried," Hardy said. "They explained that this had been happening to them for some time. They were either called pedophiles or were regularly characterized as the same, with related language."

That same evening, Hardy also said he confronted a group of sophomores with about 10 minutes left in the game. They didn't know who the new principal was.

Hardy said he heard the students as they walked by him discussing their plan to break into the school and "run around."

The principal notified security. With the support of security officers, Hardy said, he spoke with the sophomores.

"The back-and-forth I received was appalling. The students eventually cooperated," the principal said.

Earlier in the night, Hardy said he stopped an unattended 3-year-old from entering the retention pond at the north end of the field. When Hardy ran over there, he saw other children in the tall reeds.

"When I asked them to come out, they did, but not before cursing me repeatedly and one exclaimed, 'You are not my father,'" Hardy said. "I instructed them to sit with their parents, but I learned that all of these children, including scores of other middle schoolers, who were running around, were unaccompanied. Parents dropped them off and left them alone. That includes the 3-year-old, who was left with an 8th-grade sibling."

When an elderly couple tried to enter the home stands near the student section, a shirtless student blocked the stairs, pointed and told them to move the "f--- back."

"I immediately addressed that student. The hostility initially directed at me by the student was disturbing," Hardy said.

The principal said the incidents affirmed what the staff told him all summer. He said the events also confirmed why volunteer numbers are dropping, as people say they no longer want to interact with the students. He said he had already been warned by faculty and staff.

"One of the top challenges they mentioned, especially faculty, was the school climate," Hardy said. "The general theme was the environment was becoming too loose, and students were becoming harder to manage."

Hardy said he went home hurt and disappointed, saying this was his welcome to the school district.

"I was called the n-word, berated, called gay, and characterized as a pedophile essentially twice," he said.

As a result, Hardy said he changed his planned message for the first day of assemblies. He said he shared two stories about how he overcame challenges.

Hardy said he encouraged students to be heroes of their own stories and not allow small things to stop them from achieving long-term goals.

The principal advised students to attend class and support basic safety measures by wearing their ID cards. He urged them to be respectful in their appearance and language.

"I told them they could not curse at me or around me. I demanded they respect me and told them I am not a pedophile and that calling me one does not make me one," Hardy said. "Yes, I confronted that tactic head-on. But I told them it wouldn't stop me from doing my job. I spoke on behalf of my experiences Friday for sure. Still, you can imagine that I was also intentionally channeling the voices of the faculty and staff with many more similar experiences, without saying their names to students."

The principal continued, "I hope that future interactions reflect the #SOUTHPRIDE I have heard so much about in the past few months. Honestly, most students have already responded positively and have been excellent. I've tried to put on a happy face. I will keep standing tall and am moving on from that football game, but we could use your help securing the future. The world is on fire, and people are flat-out mean, but I ask you to please help us hold the line with our students."

Hardy is a former principal at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Auburn High School in Rockford and Freeport High School in Freeport.

He became South's principal July 1, succeeding Arwen Pokorny Lyp, who became principal at Downers Grove South High.