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Michelangelo’s ‘David,’ photographed in August 2021. The principal of a Florida charter school has resigned after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to what was described as pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included the nude sculpture. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Commonists. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Principal resigns after complaints on ‘David’ statue nudity

Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Michelangelo’s ‘David,’ photographed in August 2021. The principal of a Florida charter school has resigned after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to what was described as pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included the nude sculpture. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Commonists. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Michelangelo’s ‘David,’ photographed in August 2021. The principal of a Florida charter school has resigned after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to what was described as pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included the nude sculpture. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Commonists. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A Florida charter school principal has been forced to resign after a parent complained sixth graders were exposed to pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included Michelangelo’s David sculpture.

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

“It saddens me that my time here had to end this way,” Carrasquilla told the paper.

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

The kerfuffle in Florida also prompted social media users to point out similarities to a 1990s episode of The Simpsons where characters debate the censorship of the David statue.

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