Visitors to Michelangelo’s David mock the Florida school’s opposition to the statue

Visitors flocked to see Michelangelo’s sculpture of David in Florence on Tuesday, after an uproar over a Florida school’s decision to force its principal to resign over complaints about a lesson featuring the Renaissance masterpiece.

Tourists, many of them Americans on spring break or studying abroad, pose for selfies in front of the giant marble statue, which shows the Biblical David, naked with a sling over his shoulder and a stone in his hand. hand, ready to fight Goliath.

Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia, home to the sculpture, reopened on Tuesday after a weeklong Monday closure, and tourists and locals alike couldn’t get enough. in controversy.

“It’s part of history,” said Isabele Joles from Ohio, who studied French and Italian art with her school group. “I don’t understand how you can say it’s pornography.”

He and other guests were reacting to the Tallahassee Classical School board’s decision to pressure Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of David was displayed in a sixth-grade art class.

Carrasquilla believes that the board targeted him after three parents complained because they were not informed in advance that a nude image would be displayed, while the third so-called iconic statue, considered to be the height of a Renaissance sculpture, pornographic. The school has a policy that requires parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.

Over the weekend, the mayor of Florence and the director of the museum expressed disbelief at the uproar and issued invitations for the fired principal and the school community to come and see the sculpture for themselves.

“We’re talking about the roots of Western culture, and ‘David’ is the height, the height of beauty,” museum director Cecilie Hollberg said in an interview Tuesday, while the tourist passing by snapping selfies with the statue.

Controversy was not the only topic of conversation in Florence. On Monday night in Tallahassee, a large crowd showed up for a school board meeting with public comment on the issue of the statue of David controversy that lasted for an hour, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Some parents and teachers criticized the board and even asked chairman Barney Bishop to step aside.

“Because all these parents are dissatisfied with your leadership, are you ready to lead us with integrity by resigning?” asked teacher Ben Steigner.

Bishop declined, saying he wanted to stay on as chairman until the end of his term in May and then another year on the board, the newspaper reported. The five trustees are elected by themselves, not the parents, and serve three-year terms. New Principal Cara Wynn told the school board that nine students have left the school since the David controversy began, but three have enrolled.

Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost independently of the local school district and is sought after by parents looking for an alternative to the public school curriculum. About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year institution, which is now in its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on education issues.

The Florida Department of Education, however, has distanced itself from the controversy and the school’s decision.

“The Statue of David has artistic and historical value. Florida encourages the teaching of the classics and classical arts, and does not prohibit their use in instruction,” the department said in a statement. “The matter at Tallahassee Classical School is between the school and an employee, and not the effect of state rule or law.”

At the museum on Tuesday, tourist Brian Stapley from Seattle Washington said he felt sorry for the school children.

“This is one of the most amazing parts of our history,” he said as he waited in line to enter the museum. “I feel so sorry for the kids who won’t see it.”



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