Florida Strip Club Owner’s $20,000 Gift to Struggling School Challenged

Joe Rodriguez is a very charitable man. He estimates that his legal foundation, Rodriguez Charities, has donated at least half a million dollars to a wide array of good causes. He’s saved municipal parks, bought uniforms for a high school football team, helped at-risk and low-income children, supported bands, bought tickets for disabled kids to attend Miami Dolphins games, and raised money for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, police charities, Haiti earthquake relief, the American Cancer Society and the American Red Cross. He’s also donated $20,000 to Roosevelt Elementary School in West Palm Beach, Florida, a school with many students living in poverty. But now the Palm Beach County School District wants Roosevelt Elementary to return Rodriguez’s donation. That’s because in addition to being a generous philanthropist, Joe Rodriguez is also the proprietor of several South Florida gentleman’s clubs.

According to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Rodriguez’s gifts have mostly been anonymous donations. He’s been very careful not to let his line of work affect his charity. “I’ve been doing this for years and I always do it quietly,” he told the paper. “Now for some reason, they want to make a big deal out of it.” His charity events, however, such as car washes, golf and poker tournaments, often feature scantily clad women. Still, his businesses, which include the  Pure Platinum and Cheetah gentlemen’s clubs in Broward and Palm Beach counties, are legal, and other schools and places where youth congregate have had no problem accepting his donations. Eric H. Jones, mayor of West Park, in Broward County, told the Sun-Sentinel he appreciates Rodriguez’s largesse. The rags-to-riches philanthropist and strip club king donated $50,000 to keep a park used primarily by at-risk teens open. Hundreds of kids have been kept off the streets as a result. “One has to look at the broader picture,” Jones told the paper. “This is a business that is legal, even though, in a lot of circles, it isn’t fully received by society. But we’re not living in a world where anyone is on a perfect pedestal. You have to ask ‘Does the good outweigh the bad?’”

Apparently for the Palm Beach School District, the answer is ‘no.’ It will reportedly ask Glenda Garrett, Roosevelt Elementary’s principal, to return the $20,000 to Rodriguez. “I think it’s very small-minded,” he told the Sun-Sentinel. “If you ask someone who has cancer if the money to help them is coming from a strip club, I don’t think they would care.”

Of course, the usual suspects in the reactionary religious right are crying foul. Anthony Verdugo, executive director of the Christian Family Coalition, told the Sun Sentinel that Rodriguez’s generous gift “came from someone associated with the exploitation of women– and that demeans half the population. If you do that, where do you draw the line? That’s not the message to send to kids– that it’s OK to exploit women.”

The Palm Beach Post reports that Roosevelt Elementary School will keep Rodriguez’s donation. Principal Garrett says she polled the school’s parent-teacher council and reason prevailed over reactionary moralizing. “I never knew what Mr. Rodriguez does for a living, but when you run a school as poor as this one and you get a donation, that’s not the kind of question you ask. You’re just grateful for what you get,” Garrett told the Post.

Tagged christian family coalition, glenda garrett, joe rodriguez charity, joe rodriguez strip clubs, palm beach county school district, rodriguez charities, roosevelt elementary school, roosevelt elementary school $20000 donation from strip club, strip club owner $20000 gift to school, strip club owner school charity controversy, west palm beach florida