‘It saddens me that my time here had to end this way’
A headteacher has lost her job after parents complained about their children getting a lesson on one of the most famous statues in the history of art, claiming it was pornographic.
The artwork in question was Michelangelo’s David. The Renaissance sculpture was created between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo and is on display in Florence. It is visited by over one million people a year.
Hope Carrasquilla, who hadn’t even been in the top job at Tallahassee Classical School in Florida a year, announced her resignation on Monday during an emergency board meeting, according to a report by the Tallahassee Democrat.
“It saddens me that my time here had to end this way,” she told the newspaper.
Hope explained that the school board’s chair, Barney Bishop, informed her that she would either need to quit or she would be fired.
While Bishop did not specify why, Hope believes it was because of the lesson on Renaissance art.
Bishop has denied giving Hope an ultimatum.
The former headteacher explained that the school is required by law to teach lessons on Renaissance art to sixth-graders — typically 11 and 12-year-old children — as a small portion of the annual curriculum. She said three parents complained that their children were made uncomfortable by the lesson, which included a section on Michelangelo’s David.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat‘s report, the school board enacted a rule two months ago requiring parental notification two weeks before the teaching of any “potentially controversial” information.
Two of the three complainants believed they should have been notified. The third suggested the lesson was pornographic, despite being taught to 11 and 12-year-olds who are likely to have their own mobile phones and access to the internet.
David is nude in the statue.
Bishop said that “parental rights are supreme, and that means protecting the interests of all parents, whether it’s one, 10, 20 or 50.”
Parents of Tallahassee Classical School students are also complaining about the high turnover of teachers and staff, including Hope.
The Independent noted that Bishop is a lobbyist and has embraced Governor Ron DeSantis’ educational agenda, and has said Tallahassee Classical would be on the “cutting edge” of adopting the state’s rules.
“We agree with everything the governor is doing in the educational arena. We support him because he’s right,” Bishop said.
“The whole woke indoctrination going on about pronouns and drag queens isn’t appropriate in school.”
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