Troy Hennum, “genius”
Juicy ethics topics are stacking up, but this story that just arrived in my email was too jaw-dropping to resist. A spectacularly clueless young man set a new record for open and blatant abuse of authority and irresponsible, unprofessional conduct, though in a novel way.
At Roosevelt High School in Seattle, the new women’s softball coach, Troy Hennum, ordered members of his team to use their practice time to spread out around the city, take photos of “cute girls,” get their telephone numbers, and bring them back to him. This is colloquially known as “pimping.” He would follow up with date requests via text message, naturally. “Genius, great way to meet a girl, use my girls lol,” he wrote one of the candidates his team flagged as suitable date-fodder.
Come on! What’s the matter with that? Lighten up!
The Seattle Public School District had hired the 25-year-old even though it knew he had been investigated by his former school district for sending inappropriate texts to an athlete in 2012. Well, at least the district did its due diligence. Then it shrugged its metaphorical shoulders and hired this guy anyway. I see the argument: he wasn’t using his team as his own personal dating pool any more, he was using it to recruit other girls. That’s progress!
Hennum was suspended once his human Easter Egg hunt was revealed, and resigned his position, after being on the job for only six days. So sad. Imagine what this genius would have come up with if he had a chance to settle in.
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Pointer: Legal Blog Watch
Facts: Seattle Times
Graphic: Z101.1
Ethics Alarms 
Nice article, especially nice to read one with the facts right too. Ethics are the only reason I chose to contact the newspaper. I didn’t think it would get this big. Thanks for writing with a voice of the same intent as me 🙂
You did the right thing. I didn’t mention it, but it troubles me that the students didn’t blow the whistle first.
So,Kat, when you posted to a website that you accidentally had a threesome after a lingerie shoot or that you worked at a coffee stand in your panties using sex to sell coffee… was that when you became the shining star of ethics? Your 15 minutes are up girl.
Relevance? A distinction between morality and ethics is missed here, a common problem. There is nothing innately unethical about a threesome, a lingerie shoot, working in panties or using sex to sell anything. Immoral, perhaps.
Also, nothing wrong with a 21 year old being asked out by a 25 year old. I get that people take issue with the scavenger hunt, but the hunt was not solely set up to get him a date. She is making him out to be a villain and so below her standards. I’m just saying, she is one to talk. He did nothing lewd in front of children. She did. Bikini baristas are all over the place here and I have to alter my driving path so my kids don’t see the girls. They are certainly not in bikinis or hidden from public view.
“I get that people take issue with the scavenger hunt, but the hunt was not solely set up to get him a date. She is making him out to be a villain and so below her standards.”
This is a ridiculous statement. You “get” the fact that a teacher misusing his authority to have a softball team pimp for him is an issue? It’s a spectacular abuse of his position, and the sooner he was fired, the better. It doesn’t matter whether the whistle-blower was a “bikini barista” or Jack the Ripper, it was a public service. People do not need to be saints to flag misconduct. The fact that the teacher didn’t do something lewd in no way mitigates what he did. Your confident acceptance of rationalizations to excuse the inexcusable would fill a book. He is a villain. He should never be let near a school again.
Nobody was hurt. Nobody was pimped out. She “turned him in” for her own personal gain. But, alas, what hedid was not illegal. He probably didn’t want to do match.com or meet a girl at the bar. Maybe his dating life hadn’t been successful, so he turned to the people he spends the most time with. A temporary lack of judgment.
My point about Katasaurusrex is that she, with good conscience, worked as a barista who served coffee in her panties and bra. They put on lap dance shows. She, with good conscience, gave the high school girls her phone number and let them take her picture. She is not a picture of ethics our morals. I’m sorry you don’t agree with me, or see my point.
Whenever I see the “no one was hurt” phrase, I know without reading that someone did something despicable and is being supported by the morally ambiguous elements of society. Personally, I find it a “little” disturbing when a high school coach uses the girls in his charge to (essentially) procure for him. These are still children being used (adolescent or not) as agents of depravity. I really pity those who can’t see the profound ethical and moral implications of this.
Lmao. Or maybe these kinds of situations are connected with childhood molestation from a private school teacher who was also my dad. Does that give you enough of an idea of why I might blow the whistle on someone who could cause further harm to girls under 18? I think so, considering that Ive been through enough in my life to be a voice for others since I don’t want them to experience the consequences of what that that type of trauma leaves behind. I think your thirty seconds are up. Not to mention those things were done being 18+ years old. Thanks.
Oh p.s. … one more ity bity thing Gina. If your needing to go out of your way in order to protect your children from seeing bikini baristas then isn’t your point a little hypocritical since I was also trying to keep minors from a manipulative predator who has been in trouble once before trying to meet a female student alone in a hotel …even though it never happened so “technically speaking (in your terms)” he didn’t do anything illegal? Just something else to think about. Thank-you for your further clearative comments Jack
Hey Katharine I think it’s time you shut your mouth…..people see right through your crap. You obviously saw this as an opportunity to get on TV and if derailing a young man’s career was the way then so be it. And remember just as easy as you found ” dirt” on the coach, just as easy someone can find it on you. I don’t think someone who works in a sporting goods store and has worked as a bikini barista is qualified to make an assessment on what happened previously with the coach without knowing the facts.
I think it’s time you learned Ethics 101. Class 1: If a citizen is aware of wrongdoing, he or she has a duty to report it and stop it. Class 2: What that citizen’s background may be is irrelevant. Class 3: A person does not have to be blameless, sin free or perfect to call out unethical conduct. Class 4: Few good and ethical deeds have 100% pure motivations. Class 5: A teacher or coach that exploits his players like this deserves to be drummed out of the profession.
First of all Jack I don’t need some ethics lesson from someone like you. Some low level beat writer who has clearly formed an opinion without gathering all the facts behind the story. Did you see the entire text conversation? do you know the exact details behind the story? NO! I can’t believe how drawn out this story is, and how people like you have the audacity to spin this story into something it really isn’t. Let me ask you this, how come every player and parent involved is defending the coach and statements have been made where even the parents have stated that even yes this was a lack of judgement by the coach, however Katharine has completely over stated the facts and has certainly gone to great lengths to get on TV. One more thing Jack, if this somehow takes a legal turn then YES the citizens background will come into play because she will now have to answer questions in regards to her credibility and her motives behind her aggressive approach to reporting this story. you’re an idiot who has formed an opinion after only hearing one side of the story & that also makes you ignorant. I can’t believe I would even waste my time coming to this site anyway.
Yes, in fact you do. You do because you’re talking to a professional ethicist and are describing a school coach who used his students to get dates as “using a lack of judgment.” I never said what he did was criminal. I don’t care whether it was criminal or not. It’s a screaming violation of trust, so irresponsible that it beggers description, and disrespectful of his students, who are not his procurers. His judgment is so poor that he should never be permitted within a mile of school.
It’s a good thing the whistle was blown no matter who blew it. That’s not open to debate, here, or any place where common sense and basic values reign.
Professional Ethicist? and what is your point? Did you actually want to compare professional and educational accomplishments? Because I would trounce you in every way. I am not discounting the fact that it was a lack of judgement. I am though your diligence on writing about this story. I am a part of the Roosavelt community I know more about the situation then you do. Bottom line! You seem smart, and if you ever want to know exactly then send me an email and I will elaborate on the story for you. Did you ever wonder why Inside edition pulled the story before it aired? or why not a single parent or player has come out and supported Miss Aagards’s claim?
What’s my point? My point is that I’m qualified to call you on your absurd unethical nonsense, not that anyone with basic common sense and the IQ of Basset Hound couldn’t do likewise. You come on an ethics blog, post utter ethics nonsense suggesting that whether or not someone is a “bikini Barrista” can disqualify them from blowing the whistle on a low-life teacher who is a repeat offender, and then you protest that you don’t need to be schooled in ethics.
Here’s your comment in its relevant form:
A: You obviously saw this as an opportunity to get on TV and B: if derailing a young man’s career was the way then so be it. C: And remember just as easy as you found ” dirt” on the coach, just as easy someone can find it on you. D. I don’t think someone who works in a sporting goods store and has worked as a bikini barista is qualified to make an assessment on what happened previously with the coach without knowing the facts.
Four phrases, four separate ethics fouls. I’ll let you puzzle out what’s wrong with these four statements, and your comment as a whole. Or consult with anyone with the ethical literacy of your basic house painter. It doesn’t have to be me—it can be anyone who recognizes rationalizations, ethical misconceptions, threats, the Tit-for-Tat excuse, comparative virtue…but there, I’m giving you clues and spoiling the challenge. I’m sure any one of many readers should be able to get 100% on this quiz.
“Did you actually want to compare professional and educational accomplishments?” What are you, 6? I don’t care if you’ve won the Nobel Prize—your comment to Katherine was out of line and ethically clueless.
Wowww oh boy oh boy! Hahah. If I was just trying to so it for the attention, then wouldn’t you be playing into that? Also maybe you should learn the facts of this actual story befor you open your mouth again. That was why I had originally commented in the first place was because jack had clearly done his homework unlike many sites and I was applauding him. If you actually know the facts you would realize it wasn’t until after I had found out about the first incident and read it online that I told seattle times. I also had originally expressed that I didn’t want my name out there because Troy might also be crazy besides creepy and realize who said something. But I was out into the article anyways. If you actually take the time to listen to the dori monson interview that I posted above you would realize that I am actually quite humble about the whole thing because I was out in the place for a reason. And for your information, 6plus news stations and 2 national stations had every single text forwarded to them and if there was anything at all that I had said that would’ve showed I was in the wrong it probably would’ve been presented just knowing the press.
Also, there is nothing you can possible day to me that hasn’t been said to me before. So yes I have some things out there to make money and pay my bills that people may not agree with but at least I have never been out there abusing my job authority privileges to groom minors. Everyone has “dirt” on them yourself included. But as jack keeps repeating and annoying people like you who are not understanding is that it was as a whole getting Troy Hennum’s name out there so that he might not be hired to places that otherwise would’ve been nieve about his pedefelic responses in school/coaching positions. I don’t give a damn whether or not people know I’ve made coffee in underwear. If I had cared to hide it in the first place years ago then trust me I would’ve lol. I’m not ashamed about it at all. And you can’t talk down the fact that I worked my way up from that barista job and got a high end retail job that has no bonus cap making around $20,000 a year. I’m doing pretty awesome for most 21 year olds so talk shit as much as you like but it’ll never feel like a bite to me. Thanks for having nothing better to do but embarrass yourself in front of myself, and jack.
http://stage2.mynorthwest.com/76/2224247/Katharine-Aagard-explains-the-center-of-Roosevelt-High-School-softball-controversy
Yeah I heard this, and I also where the host had someone close to him come on and explain how over exaggerated your claim was.
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Why would the students blow the whistle? They probably didn’t even realize this was wrong. The new coach for their team is asking them to fix him up on a date! How cool is that when the new coach trusts them so much? He’s just like them, he’s new in town and he wants to meet new people. What a great idea.
The above is what I am guessing the teenage girls were thinking. Even some of the women contacted didn’t think this was wrong. All of that is exactly why he needs to be forbidden from teaching or coaching young people ever again. How will they ever learn right from wrong with a role model like this?
Wow. This one got more interesting than the Applebee’s waitress. And in shorter reading time.
Next time I’ll pop pop-corn.