Career fair news anchor’s Instagram video about hating high school causes unrest within SDA student body

KUSI news anchor and reporter Ashlie Rodriguez posted a video on her Instagram story about San Dieguito Academy’s career fair last Wednesday that some students criticized as disrespectful.

The video was of herself at the career fair with the caption, “Just remembering why I hated high school. San Dieguito High.” Rodriguez (@ashliesandiego on Twitter and Instagram) was attending SDA’s career fair as a representative of the TV news anchor occupation.

Rodriguez responded to student criticism Monday by issuing a statement via the official SDA Instagram account.

“I posted a video of the career fair to my IG story that may have been misunderstood. That was in no way the intent. I had a great time and was really impressed by all the students I spoke with,” she said.

Some students interpreted the original comment as a flippant jab at the school and responded by reposting the video to their Instagram stories. One anonymous student screenshotted the video with the caption, “When a news anchor hates your school and posts about it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”

Students had different interpretations of Rodriguez’s video, including the possibility that she was talking about the crowded gym seating featured in the video or the amount of noise the students were making.

“I took it pretty lightly but I know some people who were really offended,” said sophomore Emily Liang. “It was a pretty rude thing to say…You get invited to a school to speak about your career, then you say something like that. It’s like…cool, thanks.”

Junior Madelyn Flores said in an Instagram post, “I’m very shocked and upset to see this post going around on my friends’ stories. When you make a post like this, Ashlie, you attack an entire community.”

“It’s very…disheartening to hear an adult degrading someone much younger, especially when that adult is supposed to be a representation of their company they are affiliated with at a career fair, and we are supposed to look up to them for guidance and advice,” she continued.

Sophomore Olivia Dietzler said, “I know it probably wasn’t her intention to be super rude, but I’d say for sure it was disrespectful. She’s a grown adult, she should know better than to say ‘this is
why I hated high school’ and then film all of us.”