Principal resigns after Florida students shown Michelangelo statue

[nightwing1240]

A principal of a Florida school has been forced to resign after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to pornography.

The complaint arose from a Renaissance art lesson where students were shown Michelangelo's statue of David.

The iconic statue is one of the most famous in Western history.

But one parent complained the material was pornographic and two others said they wanted to know about the class before it was taught.

The lesson, given to 11 and 12-year-olds, also included references to Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" painting and Botticelli's "Birth of Venus".

Principal Hope Carrasquilla of Tallahassee Classical School said she resigned after she was given an ultimatum by the school board to resign or be fired.

Link - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65071989
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If I lived in Florida, I would be getting out of that state as soon as possible. We all need to work hard to make sure DeSantis NEVER wins election as President. Trump put us on life support, this guy would pull the plug.

[pwb]

1. Desatan is one of our wealth class owned cable providers pick.

America doesn't want little Ronnie or crazy Donnie. 24 hours of politics and pictures of both of them flashing on the screen hundreds of times a day is suppose to seal the deal murica.

No, keep looking or you will get beat down so bad you will never recover again. Local and National. IMO.

[treestar]

2. that statue is not pornographic

nudity alone is not

why not educate that parent rather than giving in?

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. The pricipal was not given the option of teaching...and we don't know that she didn't try.

[edisdead]

19. wait who is giving in?

I am super curious about this…

[treestar]

36. the principal resigned no?

stay in office and tell them to go to hell. I mean, that's stupidity in action. They don't know art from pornography.

[edisdead]

37. The principal was forced to resign.

[treestar]

38. by whom?

they gave in to the parents, no?

[edisdead]

40. No the choice was be fired or resign.

[treestar]

41. from the school board

why did the school board give in to the parents?

[edisdead]

42. Which goalposts are we discussing?

[treestar]

43. you're the one claiming no one gave in

to the parents.

I merely said nobody should resign, but educate. You started the whole thing about "who's giving in?" If no one did, no one would have resigned. They would have laughed it off.

[edisdead]

46. Yep and then you moved your question to the board.

You asked why someone resigned. And I said that person had no choice but to resign. Then you said you were talking about the board giving in to parents. That is moving the goal posts. Not trying to argue with you. Those are the facts.

Now, as for the board, I don’t know what their bylaws are or if there are metrics that they have to follow in regards to parents complaining or if this even came down above their heads. I agree that nobody should have caved in on this. But I wouldn’t blame the person that designed and I’d like to know more about why this pressure to make them resign came about.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Humiliate and destroy America's professional educators.

Put parents and politicians in charge of all schools.

Destruction of America's public education.

[Jarqui]

4. What do they ban next?

Farm animals?
Family dogs?

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. That's a good point...what are we looking at next? Euthanizing dogs and cats that lick themselves?

How dare those filthy animals show their private parts to our children....and god forbid a puppy ever humps someones leg. OMG, the horror.

[Traildogbob]

16. Have they

Seen MTV and VH1 videos as of late? Music videos will certainly be next for these “Warriors of Freedom”. Then the music itself with lyrics from Satan. There is no end in sight for at least 2 years. And that’s enough time to destroy us. Then they will eliminate any votes against them.

[CatWoman]

5. once again The Simpsons were ahead of their time

[Mousetoescamper]

8. The Amoral Minority prefer masterpieces with BDE

David doesn't arouse their flaccid minds.

[Bucky]

15. The thing is, tiny Renaissance wieners actually is BDE

Getting worked up about kids seeing and understanding the artistic purpose behind the anatomical perspectives of that in time period is the real SDE of the debate

[Mousetoescamper]

28. BDE is their childish term for the toxic masculinity enshrined in their phallic cult

Some who object to nudity, especially nudes featuring genitalia, might be old-fashioned prudes. But I don't believe this regessive movement has anything to do with prudishness or protecting children. The goal is the privatization of our public institutions and they're using the First Amendment and phony parental rights legislation to get there. These kinds of challenges are occurring in school districts in every state.

[Bucky]

30. True. Of course the term BDE has been around for years. it's social, not political

I still think the big take away from this is that any school that calls itself classical education is probably trying to justify giving their kids a eurocentric education that marginalizes anti-imperialist voices.

It sucks that the principal got caught in a moral panic attack on actual art history education, but she was doubtlessly a full participant in that eurocentric messaging to the kids.

[CTyankee]

34. so much of this art perpetuates shame against female nudity.

"Venus pudica" (ashamed Venus) covers her pudendum with her hand while her other arm extends across her breasts. It is a classic pose that you learn about in Art History class.

[Hortensis]

9. Well, if I were a teacher and had no one who needed me to stay

(that's kind of a biggie), I'd likely leave. That said, what is the bigger good? I won't smear those who stick the course intending to be part of making things right again.

I'm wondering how long until people refusing to move to or stay in Florida hurts business, including private colleges. FL laws are very strongly beneficial to business and encourage relocations to Florida. But being able to draw personnel to new locations has always been a huge factor in where to relocate, especially management and high skilled levels.

[jaxexpat]

21. It could be that Florida doesn't really have a diverse business climate.

The economy in Florida is dominated by 2 industries. Tourism and land development. (Retail and healthcare wrestle for third place.) Neither require or reward high skill levels or managerial finesse. The big secret to success in Florida is inheriting acreage and that's not taught in any schools.

[gulliver]

10. This is an example of why unreasonable fringe activists should be ignored by everyone

We have to get to a point where the wilder left and right ideology memes get only the attention and action appropriate to their democratic representation in the minds of equal human beings. We can't have the fools making fools of us all to the point where we can't have kids see David without knee-jerk overreactions by cowards.

[Pete Ross Junior]

11. Not only gay stuff, but Popery as well. Can't have that.

[SpamWyzer]

12. All

of these attempts at ideology-driven education policy are bound to fail. 1st Amendment will prevail.

[Bucky]

13. When I taught high school World History, I learned to diffuse the giggle Factor

If you just explain to teenagers the context in which Renaissance artists were attempting to understand and accurately reflect human anatomy as part of God's creation, you can show them all sorts of tiny Michelangelo wieners and they're cool about it. It's absolutely absurd you have to get permission from parents before showing their kids the most important art in world history.

The problem with right wingers is they tend to be on an absolute crusade against anyone ever being cool. Sexualizing Michelangelo's art is just such a weird hill to pick a fight on.

[SWBTATTReg]

14. I see a lawsuit here. I hope that the former principal sues their a&&es.

[Bucky]

18. Unfortunately, like a chump, she let them talk her into resigning

I guess she was trying to save her career. Only getting a gig as a teacher or even a small school principal isn't all that hard to do. She should have made them fire her, because being agreeable to disagreeable people is never the smart move.

Plus now she can't collect unemployment

[SWBTATTReg]

23. Gosh, it's so unfair to have these people run roughshod over here, considering that the

David statue was probably in the Instructor's Guide too, which one follows as an Instructor (most courses have such write-ups, you probably already know this). It's so unfair. Perhaps she should move to a more friendly environment, like in a blue state, after all, there's been a serious drain on teachers in FL, from earlier postings on DU. I can see why. What's going to happen next, that binary 0000 + 0011 isn't equal to 3?

[Bucky]

25. My guess is she's a little RWNJ herself.

Being a principal at a "classical education" focused school means (1) she's on board with the school's mission and (2) that mission is almost certainly a eurocentric education that avoids global cultures and anti-imperialist analyses of world history

[treestar]

44. Ironic then that eurocentric

does not include Renaissance European art.

[Bucky]

47. Agree. Of course what elites mean by "classic culture" isn't what the hateful rubes mean by it

When ivy tower conservatives talk about traditional Western Civ, they think they're being classically liberal arts-liberals with high culture, but fooling themselves in thinking that means they can avoid the strands of racism that came out of the hierarchies that sustained western civ after the Age of Imperialism let Europeans take over the other continents.

[Sympthsical]

33. No one's reading the story

Because facts would make it a less "clean" narrative. "Florida bans the David!" just works a lot better.

The school wasn't against the David being taught. It is part of the curriculum. What happened was, because they're conservative, they have a system in place where parents are notified if certain subjects are taught, nudity is involved, etc. They're notified and then they can decide if they want their child to see it or not.

Which, with the David, is a bit much. But whatever. It's a charter school. They want parental consent. Fine.

Well, that didn't happen. Three parents complained. Two of the parents complained simply because they weren't getting informed - they didn't care about the David itself. They're angry the school's procedures about parental notification were lapsing.

One parent was pissed about the David. One. Uno.

Apparently, the principal wasn't big on sticking to the procedures set out and, if you read between the lines of some of the stories and one of the wackiest interviews in Slate I've ever seen, there was clearly already tension between the principal and the board about procedures and other things. What those were keeps getting talked around, so who knows. But here's a quote from the CNN story:

Hope Carrasquilla, the former principal at Tallahassee Classical School, told CNN that things had been escalating over the past year.

"My board chair has not been happy with me," she told CNN, adding that she did not always follow every policy and procedure.

So this was about a lot more than the David. Whatever slapfight they've got going on over there finally boiled over.

But, "Florida wants to ban the David!" is a better narrative. So here we are.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

35. I was about to post the same thing

Although DU is a great source for breaking news, I’ve learned over the past few years that it’s as likely as not that if something seems truly outrageous, I need to go seek other sources to get the full story.

[treestar]

45. OK though the notification procedure

is stupid too. And the David triggers it. Somebody is still being an idiot. Whoever came up with the procedure, and had a procedure that included art like this.

The one parent got pretty far, too.

[niyad]

17. And this is a school supposedly providing a "classical" education.

[Bucky]

22. Well, with RWNJs that's usually code for eurocentric

I strongly suspect half the problem conservatives have with Michelangelo's David is the fact that he ain't swingin' a pipe. When your whole socio political identity revolves around measuring contests, the idea that God's chosen warrior-king isn't gonna grab all the dollars on the countertop is psychologically threatening

[Botany]

27. A "classical education" that is from Hillsdale College in Michigan and the home of Fox News People,

.... Erik Prince, and one the places that started the made up bullshit that liberal doctors, parents, and social
workers are forcing children to get unneeded gender reassignment surgeries.

I hope those people never visit Europe because they got porno all over the place.

[Botany]

20. So showing Renaissance art in a class about Renaissance art is wrong in that "Classical School?"

Last edited Sun Mar 26, 2023, 10:57 AM - Edit history (1)

This is wrong in so many ways. The GOP and the Christo Fascist Taliban are just pushing
made up "side issues" because they are so weak on the real issues.

[keithbvadu2]

24. These people don't own dogs?

No trips to the zoo?

[keithbvadu2]

26. Lauren Boebert should take her weenie-wagging hubby down there to support their morality.

Lauren Boebert should take her weenie-wagging hubby down there to support their morality.

She wears a dress that says: 'Fuck Joe Biden' as an example of moral values to our country's children.

Link to tweet

[MineralMan]

29. Lordy, Lordy - Keep Those Kids out of Museums!

Half of the kids who saw that are similarly equipped in the genital area. the other half is aware of what's there. How is that statue pornographic? I'm not seeing it.

A few years ago, I was in the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, and saw a class of kids that age trooping by the "Evolution of Man" dioramas. Lots of private parts on display there. Really, the kids looked bored to me.

It's adults who are shocked, not the kids.

[MineralMan]

31. Michelangelo's David Is Not Obscene. This Statue Is:

[ZonkerHarris]

32. It's the Chinese Cultural Revolution all over again. Fucking goobers embracing ignorance.

[sakabatou]

39. What next? Togas on every nude statue and pixelation on photos?