Girl Scout Leader Removed Due To "Metal" Themed Site

This is a story that raises an issue that many people are facing as the world becomes much more connected and our private lives begin to leak out into our public ones.

Stacy Hintz was the Girl Scout Leader for her daughter's West Bend, Wisconsin Girl Scout Troop, a position she had worked for four years.  That all changed on February 9th, though, when her co-leader approached her and asked her to step down from her position.  Why was a beloved Scout Leader suddenly asked to step down? Lets go back to the beginning.



Stacy had been performing her Scout Leader duties, her husband had been working on his own project.  A website called "Wisconsin Sickness."  In his own words, the website is described as:

A Mental Shed project created to expose and preserve the dark and disturbing underground world of Wisconsin art in all its forms, including art, film and the world-renown WI metal!

Readers on this site probably know what's up when they read a description like that, but to those of you who had their monocle pop off while exclaiming "My word!" Let me break it down for you:  the website is essentially harmless fun that takes a look at the world of underground Metal (a style and music) in Wisconsin.  If you're not sure what "metal" is, it's the thing that people confuse for being "Gothic."

All and all, the site would be pretty creepy if you weren't in to that sort of thing, but there isn't much there that one could claim is offensive. Even the section "Cannibelles," which features the women of Wisconsin Sickness in "Suicide Girl" style photo shoots, is fairly tame as it features no nudity.  Just hot girls covered in fake blood.  One of the ladies featured in the photos though, was Stacy Hintz.  Once again, nothing nude, just scantly clad.

According to Mary Black, the Chief Program Officer of Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast (via Jezebel), Stacy had been e-mailing other members of the scouts program and had included in the signature of her e-mail, a link to Wisconsin Sickness.  Which is a common thing for people with websites and businesses. Her co-leader clicked the link, took offense to what she saw, and asked Stacy to step down from her position on February 9th. She felt the site violated the values of the Girl Scouts through it's promotion of satanic imagery, demonic worship and (my favorite) zombie porn.

Upset about the sudden deicision to oust her, Stacy took to the internet to plead her case.  Currently she has over 13 videos updating viewers on the situation.  Here's the first one that started it all:

However, her complaints fell on deaf ears and on February 14th, Mary Black sent her an official dismissal letter.  That Mary is a real heart breaker, amirite? Here's what she told Stacy:

Following an internal review, we are reaffirming the notice of February 9, 2012 removing you from all of your volunteer positions with Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast. This action is being taken due to violations of policy, including your endorsement, while in a Girl Scout capacity, of a website service that does not live up to the Girl Scout standards and principles.

Essentially, they were claiming that Stacy was let go because she was promoting her website through official Girl Scout e-mails.  Though it's unclear if the Girl Scouts gave her the option of simply removing the link in her e-mail before dismissing her.  After four years of dedication, you would think she would've gotten the opportunity to fix a mistake.  This is why Stacy believes that she was let go because of her personal lifestyle, which had no reflection on her ability to be an effective Scout Leader.  Which she addressed in a video following her official dismissal:

Since then, several parents have removed their daughters from the program and in the midst of the controversy, the co-leader has also stepped down.  News organizations have also begun to take notice of the story and reactions in the media have ranged from being a serious examination of the situation to "Har, har, zombie porn."  

Channel 4 in Wisconsin got an interesting quote out of  Girl Scouts spokesperson, Tracy Wayson, who said that Stacy's performance as a leader didn't matter and that they "didn't look into her performance at all"  as it wasn't part of their "fact finding mission." 

So does this all boil down to a simple misuse of the Girl Scouts e-mail or is it a personal vendetta against a individual's lifestyle?  If the link was such an issue, shouldn't Stacy's years of service have earned her a simple slap on the wrist and and a request to remove the link?  Which would have been reasonable, since it's against policy to include personal business links in such e-mails.  However, if this is a reaction to her lifestyle are the Girl Scouts in the wrong for trying to protect their "image?"  Let me know what you think.