A Houston mayoral candidate got into a heated exchange with a group of teens after he told them they “should keep their legs closed” during what he said was meant to be an inspirational speech.
Students said they were taken aback Friday when mayoral wannabe Dwight Boykins — who is also a city councilman — made the inappropriate comments at a Youth Advocacy Summit, news station KTRK reported.
“We were with Councilman Boykins and he immediately set off numerous red flags. He refused any recording/cameras because he wanted to ‘tell it to us straight,'” Diana Deleon tweeted. “He looked me straight in the eye and said ‘Women should keep their legs closed.'”
Other attendees claimed that Boykins also made a 13-year-old girl uncomfortable when he pulled her onto the stage and joked about dating her.
“He made a young man stand up and he was holding another girl side by side and he was like, ‘If me and her were to do something, that young man wouldn’t want you in the future,’ and that really shows that he is invalidating young girls and not putting a good message across to the youth of America,” a 16-year-old identified only as Khloe told KTRK.
Some of the students called him out on his remarks, but they claim that the candidate refused to apologize to them.
“Multiple brave girls stood up and challenged him calling his actions ‘inappropriate,'” Deleon tweeted. “He continued to justify his actions saying he just wanted to ‘protect us’ and never gave a full apology.”
The councilman issued a mea culpa the next day after some of the attendees posted about the event under the hashtag #BoycottBoykins on social media.
“During the discussion, I shared my perspective on life and the importance of staying focused while avoiding some of the pitfalls that far too often plague many of our youth, a message I have delivered to groups around the city,” Boykins wrote on Facebook. “My words were met [sic] to inspire and I deeply regret the extent to which they caused anyone hurt or discomfort. That was never my intention, and to anyone who may have taken offense by what I said, I apologize.”