School principal resigns after parents complained she showed students 'pornographic' statue
A school principal says she has been forced to resign from a Tallahassee school after parents complained about her 'pornographic' art lesson.
Hope Carrasquilla oversaw her sixth grade students learn about Renaissance art when, naturally, some classic pieces like 'Creation of Adam' and Michelangelo's statue 'David' were shown.
This, it would seem, did not go down too well with parents.
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Hope had been principal at Tallahassee Classical School for just under a year when she was abruptly asked by the school's board chair to resign.
The former principal claims that board chair Barney Bishop told her to resign or she would be fired.
And so, during an emergency board meeting on Monday (20 March), she announced her departure from the school without explanation.
Speaking to local news agency Tallahassee Democrat, Ms Carrasquilla said that she believes she was asked to resign because of recent complaints from parents about an art lesson.
She claims that Mr Bishop had previously 'expressed his displeasure with my leadership when parents became upset about policies or procedures not being followed to the "T”'.
She added: "He was more concerned about litigation and appeasing a small minority of parents, rather than trusting my expertise as an educator for more than 25 years."
Ms Carrasquilla explained that, after students were shown world-renowned works of art like 'Birth of Venus', 'Creation of Adam', and 'David' (all of which contain nudity), three parents complained that the lesson had upset their children.
The former principal said that, while two of the parents complained that they'd wished they had been warned about the lesson in advance, the other described the Renaissance lesson as 'pornographic'.
The school board had passed a rule just last month that would require any 'potentially controversial' class topics to be made known to parents in advance - world famous art included.
"Parental rights are supreme, and that means protecting the interests of all parents, whether its one, 10, 20 or 50," Mr Bishop stated.
Carrasquilla claims that a letter actually *had* gone out to parents ahead of the art lesson, but a breakdown in communication between her, the art teacher, and the director of operations meant that the letter never reached parents.
When asked about the resignation, Mr Bishop stated it was 'not unusual in new charter schools to go through several principals', but confirmed that he had given Ms Carrasquilla an ultimatum - though he would not say why.
Ali Condon