‘POOR PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT’

High School Staff Get Slap on Wrist for ‘Man Pageant’ Featuring Student Lap Dances

Principal Donald “Happy” Mobelini and two other employees were admonished after a homecoming event that featured male students in lingerie giving teachers lap dances.

The mayor of Hazard, Kentucky, has been handed a written reprimand after he was filmed smiling during a high school homecoming event featuring male students in lingerie giving teachers lap dances. Mayor Donald “Happy” Mobelini, who pulls double-duty as the principal of Hazard High School, exhibited “poor professional judgment in that you allowed a student led skit to reach an inappropriate level,” according to the Oct. 27 rebuke. Two other school employees, Larry Thacker and Joshua Hurt, received identical reprimands a day after the so-called “man pageant” was hosted. The event also had female students pretending to serve beer while wearing Hooters t-shirts.

The Lexington Herald-Leader first obtained the reprimands, which ordered the three men to attend district-approved training at their own expense. Other school records included descriptions of the “man pageant,” in which boys would be competing “in evening wear, swim attire and talent.” The Herald-Leader reported earlier this month that Mobelini had been previously admonished by a state education board, which required him in 2011 to receive training on teen alcohol use and legal liability after high schoolers under his supervision drank alcohol on a trip to a rock concert.