On October 10’s morning assembly, Dr. Daugherty spoke out against “locker room talk”, explaining that what a person says can not simply be dismissed, and every word that what we say will stick with us for the rest of our lives. This was directly in response to “some things that our presidential candidates have said”, as Dr. Daugherty put it, which was a thinly veiled allusion to Donald Trump. In saying this, was Dr. Daugherty showing preference to a specific candidate, namely Hillary Clinton?

It is worth prefacing that this article is not an evaluation of whether Mr. Trump’s remarks were appropriate, nor is it designed to determine which candidate is better. Rather, I hope to raise the question of weather or not the administration is showing favorable bias for Clinton.

To figure out what the students’ general feeling about this topic is, I spoke with two students – one conservative, and one liberal – who both wished to remain anonymous.

The left-leaning student that I questioned wrote, “I think Donald Trump’s remarks are setting a dangerous precedent for future elections…He’s creating a new type of election where policies don’t matter, only petty arguments about tapes and scandals.” While the point that his remarks may be condemnable might hold true, if the administration wanted to remain non-partisan, which they have strived to do, it is worth asking why they have not mentioned things that Clinton has dismissed, such as her disrespectful remarks towards a secret service agent.

The liberal student responded, “I think both candidates have said some offensive things. However, Mr. Trump has repeatedly offended different groups of people to a higher degree than Hillary Clinton. He makes dangerous, unjustified claims about Muslims and Mexicans, which incite violence against those minorities.” While it may seem that the volume of Trump’s condemnable language might exceed Clinton’s, in the week after this conversation, Project Veritas Action released recorded tapes showing that Hillary Clinton knew that her campaign staffers were inciting violence at Trump rallies. Indeed, as a result, Democratic consultant Robert Creamer resigned from his position soon after.

“I do not believe Dr. Daugherty’s remarks showed slight towards a specific candidate,” confirmed the liberal student. “Teenagers are impressionable, and it’s important for students to know that the type of language expressed by Mr. Trump should not be repeated.” True, the things that Trump has said more than likely merit decrying. But if teenagers are in fact impressionable, the administration should be doing everything they can to keep bias out of the school as well. Of course the language used by Trump is offensive, but is language used by Clinton not, including but not limited to her offensive response to a secret service agent? By not specifically mentioning a candidate, is Dr. Daugherty condemning all of these remarks, or only the ones that were dismissed as ‘locker room talk’?

When asked the same questions, a conservative student had surprisingly similar answers. He explained, “Well, I think like everybody, they were offensive of course… just the kind of nature of talk was offensive. But…that happened a while ago, and I’d say he’s more polished now…Things like that happen. Hillary Clinton’s said some terrible things and she’s done some terrible things… He has come out and apologized for it.” Indeed, what separates Trump from Clinton is that Trump has issued an apology for his comments on women. And while Clinton apologized for her email server, she did not apologize for the things she’s said.

Speaking of things Clinton has said, the conservative student commented, “I believe she called – you can fact check this – but I believe she called…  African-American youth… Super Predators, that’s incredibly racist, and incredibly offensive. I think more offensive than anything you’re talking about what Donald Trump said now.” Indeed, fact checkers have repeatedly confirmed that Clinton used this language.

While it seems Dr. Daugherty’s remarks were somewhat biased in favor of Clinton, he did make a reasonable attempt to make it appear non-partisan. Although he could have also made an allusion to the mistake of Secretary Clinton, he was absolutely correct to decry the things said by Mr. Trump.

Perhaps the conservative student put it best: “He didn’t just come out and say, ‘Donald Trump is terrible’… he never mentioned Hillary Clinton though, which was irking. I suppose it could be seen as kind of biased. Not completely though…. It’s not really an excuse, ‘locker room talk’.”