Sherrilyn Ifill’s tweet highlighted this story for me because I don’t always read Slate.
An Interview With the School Board Chair Who Forced Out a Principal After Michelangelo’s David Was Shown in Class
It’s no longer shocking to hear or see a story as the one above, after all these people are in the same vein as John Ashcroft having the two Spirit of Justice statues covered by drapery because he was afraid he might get aroused seeing the nipple on one of the two aluminum art deco statues.
You know they know they’re wrong by how defensive they become when challenged.
Barney Bishop III: Well, like all the reporters I’ve talked to today, the premise that you’re operating from is incorrect. We didn’t remove her. She resigned. She’s an at-will employee by contract, as are all our teachers. I went to her last week and offered her two letters. One was a voluntary resignation, and another a letter that said if she decided not to resign, I was going to ask the board to terminate her without cause. Without cause. We have the right to do that under the contract.
snip
Reporter: You’re saying this wasn’t about an art teacher showing Michelangelo’s David.
Bishop: We didn’t even discuss that issue at the special board meeting on Monday morning.
Notice the qualifier? So the “issue” wasn’t discussed at the special board meeting. When you have a board meeting about an issue and that issue isn’t discussed at that meeting, it means the discussion occurred before the board meeting. It was just off the record. Florida has an “Open Meetings” law. No discussion at the meeting equals no record on the board members discussions.
Just to be clear, Mr. Bishop and the board claim it wasn’t about the picture of a statue, but the letter that wasn’t sent out prior to the picture being shown to a 6th Grade Class.
Reporter: Just to be clear, last year you sent a notice to parents warning them that students were going to see Michelangelo’s David?
Bishop: Yes. This year, we made an egregious mistake. We didn’t send that notice. Look, we’re not a public school. We’re a public charter. Parents, after they saw all the crap that’s being taught in public schools during COVID, decided of their own that they didn’t want their children to be taught that. Here we teach the Hillsdale Curriculum, focusing on civic and moral values. We teach a traditional, Western civilization, liberal classical education. And if there’s controversial topics or subjects, we tell parents in advance. We’re going to be sensitive to everybody at the school.
He goes on to defend their decisions, claiming we have no idea of how they taught in the 17th and 18th centuries. Yeah Mr. Bishop, you’re right, they never bothered to record or discuss in any manner how or what things were taught during the “Age of Enlightenment.” They never wrote anything down, not a word.