High School ‘Hotness Tournament’ Outrages Parents, Students

A high school “hotness tournament” has left many students and parents outraged.

Issaquah High School in Washington has been the subject of controversy after the creation of an online tournament, which pits students against one another in terms of attractiveness.

The tournament was designed to imitate a similar contest held by a local radio station. However, there’s little officials can do about the situation since it isn’t being conducted on school property.

While parents and authorities were able to successfully shut down the high school “hotness tournament” last year, the latest version of the contest has proven to be a bit more difficult to crack. Reports suggest that gaining access to the actual website is a lot trickier than it was in 2012.

School district spokeswoman Sarah Niegowski said she understood why so many students and parents were outraged by the tournament. She explained that it “doesn’t feel good to anybody.”

“These are pretty smart folks behind this. They know their first amendment rights. They’re very quiet about who it is and the group behind it,” Niegowski explained.

The online contest, which is known as May Madness, is popular with a lot of students at Issaquah High School. However, some of the kids who attend the school aren’t exactly impressed with the tournament and what it can do to a person’s self-esteem.

“This kind of thing is sexualizing us girls like we’re some sort of trophy,” sophomore Devon Keller explained.

“Almost every teenage girl has self-esteem issues. And doing something like that is absolutely ridiculous,” student Tristan Robinson added.

“People who might already have depression might take it further and there’s no way to know what’s going on,” David Mahoney said.

School officials explained that police are currently monitoring the site. Unless authorities find something on the site that’s offensive, vulgar, or illegal, there’s little they can do to stop the contest right now.

What do you think about the high school “hotness tournament” taking place in Washington? Do you believe that students should be able to create such a website if it isn’t being hosted on school property?

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