A Florida private school principal said she was forced to quit after parents complained their 11- and 12-year-old sons were shown pictures of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ during an art class of the Renaissance, images that a parent compared to pornographic content.
The principal, Hope Carrasquilla, said she resigned from Tallahassee Classical School in Leon County, Fla., during an extraordinary school board meeting Monday after, according to reports written dal Tallahassee Democrat, she had been told to choose between resignation and dismissal. Carrasquilla said she had not been told why she was being asked to quit, but she added that she believes the parental complaints received by the school’s governing body had something to do with her request. “I am sad to announce that my days as principal of the Tallahassee Classical School are over,” she wrote in a letter to the governing body on Tuesday, which the Washington Post got to read.
Barney Bishop III, a lobbyist and the chairman of the school’s governing body, confirmed to the Washington Post that he gave Carrasquilla an ultimatum after three parents complained about the David that the images shown to the students were “controversial” and not appropriate for their age. Bishop told the Washington Post that there were several other problems with Carrasquilla, including failing to notify parents ahead of time that the statue would be displayed.
«She didn’t quit for the artistic nude photos, we show them every year» Bishop said about Carrasquilla’s resignation, which he defined as “voluntary”: «the core of the matter is not having informed the parents before there was the lesson”.
Tallahassee Classical follows a curriculum proposed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Michigan institution, which has helped open dozens of similar private schools across the country. Renaissance art is expected to be taught to students of that age, and the lesson with the pictures of David also had pictures relating to Michelangelo’s ‘Creation of Adam’, and Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’.
In his letter, Carrasquilla acknowledges that he did not warn parents before the images were shown during a lesson, and speaking with Tallahassee Democrat he noted, two parents had complained that they had not been warned and a third had criticized the fact that their children had been shown something pornographic. “I have always loved Tallahassee Classical School,” he wrote, “and I’m not trying to draw attention to myself or any political agenda.”
During a short phone call with the Washington Posther husband, Victor Carrasquilla, called her “a staunch evangelical Christian” and argued that it was wrong to force her resignation.
The story comes at a time when Florida is talking a lot about a possible school reform wanted by the Republican party and promoted in particular by the governor of the state Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican candidate for the US presidential elections in 2024.
In recent years in the United States there have been intense debates on how and on whether it is appropriate to speak to students, especially primary school students, about racism, gender, sexual orientation and the rights of transgender students, just as there has been talk of what books to make available in classrooms and school libraries. So far, 25 US states have passed 64 laws to change what children can do and learn in schools, and Florida has been a particularly fervent place in this debate. DeSantis, in fact, stood out for the firmness with which he wanted to eliminate what he calls “woke” and leftist ideologies from schools.
Specifically, DeSantis enacted two laws: One that provides for education about issues of gender identity and sexual orientation only after fourth grade; another that forbids certain ways of teaching about “race” issues. In addition, a possible Advanced Placement course on African American history was denied in Florida because it was considered devoid of educational value, as well as politically leftist.
Among the laws discussed in recent weeks is one, House Bill 1069, which could give parents greater powers to view and evaluate what is taught, as well as limit the freedom of children to access certain school library contents. The law, proposed by Republican Stan McClain, also provides that sex education is given only to students aged 11 or over. There has been a lot of talk about the bill in recent days, after McClain explained that it would also ban girls from talking about their periods at school.
When it opened in the fall of 2020, Tallahassee Classical explained on its website that it wanted to “train the minds and improve the hearts of students through classically educated studies in the liberal arts and sciences, with teachings in principles of moral character and civic virtue.” . According to New York Times, Hillsdale College, in which Tallahassee Classical recognizes itself, has raised money by opposing what it calls “leftist” teachings and a “biased and distorted” view of US history. A year ago, Hillsdale College removed Tallahassee Classical from the schools it controlled because it didn’t meet certain standards, but the school was later readmitted.
Hope Carrasquilla, who has lived in Tallahassee for years, was named leader less than a year ago after being promoted from a role in which she was responsible for managing curriculum selection. In her online profile, which has since been removed, Tallahassee Classical celebrated 27 years of teaching and more than 10 years of classical education.
Bishop said he doesn’t think the David – sculpted between 1501 and 1504 – is controversial, and noted that he had studied Renaissance art in Italy 50 years ago. He added that although 97 percent of parents had no problem with it being shown during a lesson, parents’ concerns and their right to decide what their children are taught is more important than his personal opinion of he. “I’ve listened to what they had to say and we’re in constant contact, but I haven’t asked them what was controversial and I know I won’t change their opinion.”
Carrie Boyd, who has two children at Tallahassee Classical, told the Tallahassee Democrat that “it seems that the school is becoming part of something bigger”, and some parents said they were surprised that an extraordinary school council was convened to decide the future of Carrasquilla.
Bishop said lessons with pictures of David will continue to be done, but only after notifying parents, and did not deny that the school is aligned with DeSantis’ ideas. “I applaud him and we support him on his agenda to change education in Florida, and parental rights come first,” she said.
Critics, including Jen Cousins of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which opposes textbook restrictions in the state, said the forced resignation of a principal represented unnecessary censorship of classic art. “Is the visual arts the next thing Florida gets cut?” Cousins wrote.
In recent days there are those who have pointed out that the story relating to David is also one of those that “i Simpson they predicted.”
“Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!” (1990) pic.twitter.com/Ut4Z1CQb9m
— DISSney (@DISSneyFeuds) March 23, 2023
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