A Florida principal was forced to resign after a few unreasonable parents demanded his ouster for daring to show students one of the most famous artistic creations ever produced when an image of Michaelangelo’s David was presented during a Renaissance art lesson.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported that Tallahassee Classical School Principal Hope Carrasquilla stepped down from her position during an emergency school board meeting in which she was presented with the option to either resign or face her firing.
If it sounds silly, that’s because it is. And curiously both sides have been quiet about the exact reasons for the ultimatum. For her part, Carrasquilla thinks she was asked to step down over the presentation of the David sculpture, and school board chair Barney Bishop refused to offer an explicit explanation on the advice of the district’s lawyer.
In other words, a principal might have been fired for showing students the most famous marble sculpture in perhaps all of human history that happens to depict a nude male, or it might have been an excuse to bring a principal to the chopping block for other undisclosed reasons.
“It saddens me that my time here had to end this way,” Carrasquilla said, taking at face value the idea her art lesson led to the resign-or-be-fired ultimatum.
Fox News recapped the supposed moment that led to the principal’s forced departure, writing:
Three parents reportedly complained that the lesson’s content that included Michelangelo’s marble statue of a nude “David,” upset their children. Two of the three parents said they wished they had been notified of the lesson beforehand, while the third parent called the lesson pornographic, according to Carrasquilla.
A new rule at the school requires parents be notified two weeks before teaching “potentially controversial” curriculum, allowing them time to review the material [school board chair Barney] Bishop told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Adding confusion to the story is that, as the Tallahassee Democrat reported, the Tallahassee Democrat noted that Tallahassee Classical was affiliated with Hillsdale College and its school curriculum programs. Hillsdale is a renowned Christian, conservative outpost and the 6th-grade curriculum heavily features Renaissance content.
It’s odd that parents would choose a school associated with Hillsdale and also have a problem with the classical nature of its learning.
Several comments below the article on Fox reacted to the news with confusion over the overreaction.
“I’m all for parental rights in education but this is a step too far. These are the same parents that’ll complain about Mark Twain and other established literature,” one top comment said.
“I usually stand with parents regarding their role in their children’s education but this is taking things to the extreme,” another said.
“I don’t think she should have been terminated, but providing parents advance notice and the opportunity for their child to opt out doesn’t seem unreasonable either. Seems both sides could have handled it better,” a third offered.
“One of the most iconic statues ever created is pornographic? What is wrong with these people and why are they in charge?” another asked of the school board.
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