A Florida principal has resigned under pressure from the school board after three parents complained that an art teacher showed Michelangelo’s statue of the biblical shepherd ‘David’ (1501-1504) to their students in sixth grade of 11 and 12 years old. One parent even said the famous artwork was “pornographic.” The art teacher’s lesson was part of the curriculum OBLIGATORY unit on Renaissance art.
Now the chairman of the board of trustees of Tallahassee Classical School — a free, public charter institution — is using the resignation as an opportunity to stand up for “parents’ rights,” a conservative talking point that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis codified with the 2021″Parents’ Bill of Rights.”
“Parental rights are supreme, and that means protecting the interests of all parents, whether they are one, 10, 20 or 50,” said board chairman Barney Bishop III. Tallahassee Democrat.
Principal Hope Carrasquilla had worked at Tallahassee Classical School for less than a year and announced her resignation at an emergency school board meeting on Monday, March 20. In a controversial interview with Slate, Bishop refuted the idea that the board fired Carrasquilla. “We didn’t take it out. She quit,” Bishop said.
But Carrasquilla didn’t really have a choice.
“I went to see her last week and gave her two letters. One was a voluntary resignation, and another a letter saying that if she decided not to resign, I was going to ask the board to fire her without cause,” Bishop said. Slate, saying he legally could not cite the reason for his ousting. Both Bishop and Carrasquilla alluded to a strained relationship between the manager and the chairman of the board.
Tallahassee Classical School declined to comment for Hyperallergicthe story. Carrasquilla could not be reached for comment.
Since the adoption of the Parents’ Bill of Rights, Florida lawmakers have limit discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary classrooms and require schools to notify parents of upcoming material that may not be “age appropriate.”
Bishop, who did not respond Hyperallergic immediate request for comment, explained to the Democrat that the school should have sent a notice about “David” because the board requires parents to be alerted to “potentially controversial” material. (Under the regulations, parents can then review the lessons before they are taught.)
Bishop called the school’s failure to alert parents to the 16th-century masterpiece – arguably one of the world’s best-known sculptures – a “glaring error” in his interview with Slate. The art professor requested that a notice be distributed (Bishop said a notice was sent out last year), but Carrasquilla did not finalize it, which she called an administrative error.
In addition to serving as chairman of the charter school’s board of trustees, Bishop owns a “strategic public relations” consulting firm. In his website bio, Bishop describes himself as a “lobbyist” (since 1979) and quotes a newspaper which called him “an icon of business lobbying”.
It seems Bishop did not sacrifice his political leanings to serve as head of the Tallahassee Classical School. He explained to Slate that his charter school (which teaches a “traditional western civilization, liberal classical education”) was established in 2020 after parents “saw all the bullshit that is taught in public schools.”
“We agree with everything the governor is doing in the area of education. We support him because he is right,” he told the Democratcriticizing “the ongoing woke indoctrination about pronouns and drag queens”.
While the Tallahassee Classical School is run by an ardent DeSantis fan, Florida conservatives are working to make “parents’ rights” impossible to ignore. Lawmakers are trying to expand restrictions on discussions of gender and sexuality throughout Grade 12, and First Lady Casey DeSantis is lead a charge to further increase parent involvement in classrooms.
“[Bishop] was more concerned with litigation and placating a small minority of parents,” Carrasquilla told the Democrat. “Rather than relying on my expertise as an educator for over 25 years.”
