St. Hope dean says women should submit to men on YouTube. Sacramento students knew
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The longtime head dean of students at St. Hope Public Schools has for years spent his free time posting YouTube videos where he discusses his views on masculinity, dating and sex.
Administrator Ken Powell runs a YouTube channel called Mr. 1950 to which he uploaded videos nearly every day. Dubbing himself “the last traditional man on the planet,” the majority of his videos contain dating advice for men — emphasizing an “alpha male” mentality and his opinion that women should be submissive in relationships.
Powell said that he made an intentional choice to separate his personal identity from his public content and does not identify himself by full name or occupation in his videos. He also maintained that his online work does not interfere with his performance as head dean of students.
“I want to clarify that my personal activities and interests outside of school hours are entirely my own and do not reflect the views, values, or policies of St. HOPE Public Schools. I am committed to maintaining professionalism in my role as an educator and upholding the standards expected by the school community. My focus during school hours is solely on the success and well-being of my students,” he wrote in an email.
But former staff members say that they were aware of Powell’s online presence, as was the student body. One former coach said that the alpha-male mentality displayed in his online persona was also present in his work at the school.
Who Ken Powell is online
In his videos, Powell promotes what he calls “traditional values” — advocating for the subservience of women in relationships and for men to embody conservative masculine ideals. He often records videos while driving.
Most of Powell’s content covers dating advice for men with an emphasis on maintaining power in relationships with women. In a number of videos, Powell expresses his belief that women are second to men under God and their role is serve their man.
In a now-deleted video about why men should always have a plan for women, Powell says “God gives me the purpose. I submit to God. My woman submits to me. So it becomes out of order when you have women believing that their purpose is something totally different than yours.”
In multiple videos, the administrator and content creator says that women need to be able to cook and should be eager to do so for their man. In a deleted video titled “Mr. 1950 Seduces the Sandwich Caller Live on Air,” Powell and his guests discuss a woman’s obligation to cook for her partner. The St. Hope dean monologued about getting a woman to submit to his needs.
“When you meet somebody like me, I not only check the boxes, but I’ve created so many more boxes for you to check that you never knew existed, that the sandwich is minimal. So now you will break your back trying to make this sandwich because you want to please me so much.
“You want to outdo my resume of women. You want to outdo every experience that I’ve had. You want my eyes to stay focused on you so much that you’re going to make sure that that lettuce is washed, that that tomato is sliced and placed perfectly, and not only are you gonna do it, you’re gonna do it with a smile.
“And then when you’re done, I’m gonna spank that ass and get up and I’m gonna stand over you, because I’m sure you’re about 5’3”, and I’m gonna stand and I’m gonna look down at you. I’m gonna grab your chin, I’m gonna kiss those lips, and you know what you’re gonna do? You’re gonna say, ‘anything else?’”
He has also spoken disparagingly of Asian women. In a guest appearance on a YouTube channel called GameGlobal, Powell, unprompted, talks about not being attracted to Asian women.
“Most of them are really small, I don’t really like small-ass women… .” he says. “I can name a couple off the top of my head I met in the past that are some nice ones I would deal with.”
Powell also sells lifestyle coaching for between $150-$750 per month, according to his website. Lower-tier members of the Silverback Lifestyle Membership are entitled to exclusive content and a one-hour group Zoom session a month, while higher paying members are entitled to weekly one-on-one sessions and unlimited text Q&A sessions with Mr. 1950 himself.
After being notified that The Sacramento Bee was writing a story about Powell’s channel, he deleted his public Facebook account and pulled hundreds of videos from social media.
Prior to removing the bulk of his content from YouTube, The Bee scraped data from his channel dating from December 2024 to early June 2025. He uploaded near daily in that time, including both videos and livestreams averaging around one hour each.
While the data scrape went back fewer than six months, Mr. 1950 uploaded consistently for several years before that. He posted 900 videos as of May 27, 2025.
As of June 12, there are only 37 videos on his channel — zero livestreams remain. Here are the titles of some of the videos that have been removed from public view:
▪ “Is Spending Money to Impress Women a Loser’s Game?”
▪ “If She Really Wants You She’ll Share You”
▪ “Does SIZE Really Matter? This Woman’s Response SHOCKED The Internet”
▪ “Stop Simpin’ & Start Pimpin | How To Attract Women Without Even Trying”
▪ “REAL Men Would Never Allow This To Happen: Why Men Should Always Have A Plan For Women”
▪ “Jamal Woolard Explains How Black Women Are ‘GOLD DIGGERS’ & Why Women OverSeas Are Better”
▪ “He Clapped Her Cheeks and Disappeared — NBA Drama Unfolds” (no longer visible in search results or on his channel)
Mr. 1950 on campus
Multiple former St. Hope teachers confirmed that they were aware of Powell’s channel, with many saying that students alerted them to the content.
“Students were aware of his YouTube channel, that’s how I heard about it,” former middle school teacher Nick Brundage said of his eighth-grade class. “I had students call it related to Andrew Tate content.” Tate is a popular online influencer who has described himself as a misogynist.
St. Hope has been under scrutiny in the past year due to an audit that alleged governance and fiscal issues at the school. Last month, The Bee revealed that multiple teachers alleged that students were partying with the Sacramento High head football coach. The investigation prompted Sacramento City Unified School District’s board, the school’s charter authorizer, to ask for more accountability in their five-year renewal agreement that will be finalized at the end of the month.
Powell manages the team of deans, some of whom were investigated for their reported roles in the inappropriate socialization with students. A group of teachers alleged that deans had also participated in retaliatory harassment against the teacher who made most of the reports. The lawyer who investigated the matter called out their behavior in his final report.
“Unfortunately, coaches, deans and hall monitors became aware of who made the allegations against them fairly early on in the investigative process. Instead of letting the investigation run its course, and keep matters themselves, it is plainly obvious they shared this information with others. Instead of acting like responsible adults, some coaches deans and hall monitors chose to act like the very students they are expected to set examples for.”
Another former teacher, who asked for anonymity out of concern of retribution, said that some of her female students and fellow teachers found the channel creepy.
“Us young ladies on staff were definitely disturbed about it,” she said.
Matt Johnson, a former basketball coach, whose termination sparked protests in 2023, said that Powell’s alpha male ideology was apparent through the ways he interacted with staff and students.
“All that ridiculous stuff, he preaches that to all the men around campus,” he said. “That’s who he is — he embodies it. He believes men are above women, that men are the alphas.”
At an organization with large administrative and teaching staff turnover, Powell is one of the longest-serving administrators, acting as a dean since around 2011, according to an archive of the school’s website. He manages the team of deans at the school, a role which bears more similarity to a campus monitor at a standard school.
Johnson described the culture of the deans and coaches at the school as a “good ol’ boys club,” and attributes some of his poor treatment while employed at the school to the bullying by Powell’s team of deans.
Is Powell’s YouTube channel in conflict with the law or school policy?
Powell said he has drawn a purposeful line between his online persona and professional work.
“Posting my full name in a published article that’s tied to a YouTube channel — especially when I’ve deliberately chosen not to use my name — violates the clear boundary I’ve set to protect my likeness and the professional image I maintain,” Powell said in an email.
St. Hope did not respond to questions about whether Powell’s content has prompted any complaints or if the school was concerned about Powell’s comments about women. But it issued a general statement:
“As a public school, we cannot dictate the activities our teachers and staff choose to engage in during their free time. We hold all employees to high professional and ethical standards while they are performing their duties on behalf of St. HOPE Public Schools,” Director of Operations Elisha Ferguson Parsons said in an email.
Todd DeMitchell is a University of New Hampshire professor of Education Law and Labor and a co-author of an upcoming book “A Teacher’s Right to a Private Life.” Determining whether an administrator or teacher’s online presence should be scrutinized has several considerations, he said.
Since Powell does not identify himself as an employee or an educator, it gives him more free speech cover, DeMitchell said.
But educators have also long been held to the standard of a role model. He said that an employing agency does not have the power to dismiss any employee whose personal, private conduct it disapproves of, so a teacher’s behavior should disqualify him only when it is clearly related to his effectiveness in his job.
DeMitchell said a number of questions should be considered when weighing the ethics of Powell’s online content: “Did Mr. 1950 violate his role model status with his posts? Has there been a showing that Mr. 1950’s posts/videos has caused a harm to the educational process at the charter school? Has there been adverse publicity, in which the school community has raised issues with his posts/videos? Do any of the posts/videos break any laws? Have students been involved in his productions?”
“These standards for out-of-school behavior do not mean that the charter school administration cannot investigate the posts/videos,” DeMitchell said. “His behavior may impact board policy. As an administrator he likely has less protections than a teacher at the school.”
A review of St. Hope’s staff handbook shows that Powell is likely not in any violation of the school’s policy. The social media-use policy dictates that all St. Hope staff members that make posts related to the school, that identify themselves as employees and that use social media to connect with other school community members should be on their best behavior, ensuring that they are not disclosing confidential information or doing anything of public concern.
Although the policy does not dictate how staff members who do not disclose their identities should engage online, it does contain a section asking staff members to “carefully consider the impact that their social media post could have on SHPS.”
“Information posted on social media can be hurtful to colleagues, can be misconstrued by parents, and can become a subject of gossip among students. Social media posts also have the potential to impair a staff member’s ability to command respect among students, parents, and co- workers. Staff should consider this when posting on social media,” the policy reads.
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
