Student to get apology over crop top incident at campus gym
A Fredericton student who was told that the crop top she wore to a campus gym was too distracting will get an apology from St. Thomas University.
MacKenzie Parsons said she was embarrassed and shocked when a male gym employee warned her there was a policy being developed that would not allow crop tops.
The 21-year-old took to social media to complain, and noted that male students often went shirtless or wore muscle shirts that were ripped down the sides.
“As a woman, we are always taught what’s appropriate to wear and what’s not, while men can wear anything and everything and get nothing said to them,” she wrote.
“I’m not there to distract those around me, I’m there to workout and work on myself. I’m not going to buy a whole new wardrobe, when all I own is crop tops to workout in because that’s what I feel COMFORTABLE IN.”
Jeffrey Carleton, associate vicepresident of communications at St. Thomas, said the situation was terribly mishandled by the university and the student would be getting an apology.
“We mishandled this from the get go. We shouldn’t have communicated with the student the way that we did. We shouldn’t have embarrassed her,” Carleton said.
He said the university is developing a policy but it’s based on health and safety in an effort to keep sweat off the gym equipment.