Florida school principal Donelle Evensen called for meeting and threatened high-achieving black student with jail time if they don’t improve their test scores
- Only black students — regardless of their test scores — were brought to the special meeting at Bunnell Elementary School
- Chief Inspector says to director: ‘If you think ‘off the beaten track’, you sometimes forget why the box is there’
A new school principal has enraged parents at a Florida elementary school after she tried to improve grades by sending only her black students to a special meeting, where they were warned they could face jail time.
Bunnell Elementary School’s fourth and fifth grade students were put together regardless of their test scores and told that black students underperformed.
“It became racist to me when they locked all black kids together regardless of whether they were below average, average or above average,” said the mother of a high-achieving student.
Parents said their children had been warned that those with lower grades are more likely to go to jail, be shot, or be killed.
But they did get a chance to win “a meal from McDonalds” if they beat their scores.
The principal of Bunnell Elementary School has only been in office since July
School district Interintendent LaShakia Moore made it clear that the principal needed to improve her performance
The Florida elementary school has 227 black children among its 1,168 students
“Now if my daughter has to take a test, it’s on the back of her mind,” parent Jacinda Arrington told WOFL.
“They divorced our kids in 2023, they divorced our nine-year-olds.”
The Flagler County school has 227 black and 696 white among its 1,168 students and was awarded a C grade by the Florida Department of Education last year.
Principal Donelle Evensen didn’t assume the role until late July, but she’s already been accepted into the office of interim superintendent LaShakia Moore of the school district.
“I had the opportunity to sit down with Bunnell Elementary Principal Donelle Evensen following a gathering of 4th and 5th grade students,” Ms. Moore wrote in a statement.
‘We were able to talk about what led to this meeting and the steps that were or were not taken before or after.
‘My conversation with Mrs. Evensen clearly shows that there were no malicious intentions in planning this student campaign.
“But sometimes, when you try to think ‘out of the box’, you forget why the box is there.”
The state has been at the center of an education debate since Governor Ron DeSantis passed his “Stop Woke Act” to limit discussion of race, and passed a curriculum that argued that slavery provided slaves with the skills they found useful.
County School Board president Cheryl Massaro said the latest altercation had nothing to do with the Republican presidential nominee, but that it was a school error.
All black students were told that “the problem” is that they underperform
Parents Jacinda Arrington (left) and Alexis Smith (right) were among those shocked by the racially divisive meeting
“It wasn’t a great idea,” she told the Washington Post.
“It’s sad that it was segregated by race because that’s not fair, but that’s what happened.”
Parents said their children were still upset after attending Friday’s rally.
“So I’m going to die, I’m going to get shot, I’m going to jail if I don’t do it right, so now he’s freaking out,” said Alexis Smith.
“They’re still innocent, they’re still playing with action figures, so now we have to overcharge because of something that happened in their safe place at their school?”