College ends partnership with Florida charter school over the ‘David’ statue issue

A Michigan college has ended its partnership with a Florida charter school whose principal was forced to resign after a parent complained that sixth graders were exposed to “pornography” during a lesson on Renaissance art that included the Michelangelo sculpture “David.”

A Hillsdale College spokesperson said Tallahassee Classical School is no longer affiliated with the Christian classical liberal arts college in southern Michigan, MLive.com reported Thursday.

“This drama around teaching Michelangelo’s ‘David’ sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become a distraction from, and a parody of, the actual aims of classical education,” the college’s Emily Stack Davis wrote in a statement. “Of course, Hillsdale’s K-12 art curriculum includes Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and other works of art that depict the human form.”

Tallahassee Classical School was licensed to use Hillsdale’s classical education curriculum, but its license was “revoked and will expire at the end of the school year,” Davis said.

Hillsdale provides K-12 curriculum in partnership with dozens of charter schools across the country.

World & Nation

Florida principal ousted after parent complaints about Michelangelo’s ‘David’ statue

A Florida charter school principal has been forced to resign after a parent complained that sixth-graders were exposed to Michelangelo’s famous “David” sculpture.

March 24, 2023

The Florida school’s principal, Hope Carrasquilla, resigned last week after an ultimatum from the school board’s chairman.

Carrasquilla told the Tallahassee Democrat that one parent had complained the material was pornographic, and that two other parents said they wanted to be notified of the lesson before it was given to their children. The instruction also included Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” painting and Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.”

Tallahassee Classical School did not immediately respond to phone messages left Thursday seeking comment.

On Sunday, the museum in Florence, Italy, where “David” is on display invited parents and students from the Tallahassee school to visit the statue in person. Florence’s mayor also tweeted an invitation to Carrasquilla so he could personally honor her.

The “David” statue’s nudity has been part of centuries-old debates about the rules of censorship, and art pushing boundaries. In the 1500s, metal fig leaves covered the genitals of statues like the “David” when the Roman Catholic Church deemed such nudity as immodest and obscene.