Florida principal says she was forced to resign after parents complained that photos of Michelangelo's David shown to students were 'pornographic,' report says

• A Florida principal said she was forced to resign after parents complained about Michelangelo's "David."
• The Washington Post reported that school officials did not disclose exactly why the principal was asked to resign.

The principal of a Florida charter school resigned after parents complained about photos of Michelangelo's David being "pornographic."

Hope Carrasquilla said she was forced to resign from her position as principal of Tallahassee Classical School in Leon County, Florida on March 20 after the county school board gave her an ultimatum to resign or be fired, according to The Washington Post.

Carrasquilla said the school board did not give her a reason for their ultimatum, but she believes complaints related to a lesson including Michelangelo's "David" shown to sixth graders led to the board's decision, The Post reported.

Barney Bishop, the chair of the school board, told the Post three parents lodged complaints regarding the lesson.

Bishop affirmed he gave Carrasquilla the ultimatum, according to the Post. But Bishop would not say why he asked her to resign on the advice of the school's attorney, he told The Post.

""She wasn't let go because of the artistic nude pictures. We show it every year to our students," Bishop told The Post. "The problem with this particular issue was the lack of follow-through on the process."

Bishop told the paper that the school had "several issues" with Carrasquilla in the past, including that she did not notify parents that their children would be shown Michelangelo's famous sculpture.

Carrasquilla's husband, Victor Carrasquilla, told the paper that his wife is a "strong evangelical Christian" and said the board should not have forced her to resign.

Carrasquilla and the Leon County School Board did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Sunday.

The Simpsons did it

Schools across the United States have been hit with protests over the discussion of LGBTQ topics and the supposed teaching of critical race theory in schools, among other issues. Some states, such as Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah, have also introduced "book ban" laws, which often make it an offense to provide books in schools or school libraries that cover divisive subjects.

Critics of the laws have said that they disproportionately attack books with LGBTQ themes and those written by people of color.

And the nudity in Michelangelo's "David" has long been a topic of discussion among individuals with more conservative viewpoints, so much so that a 1990 Simpsons episode parodied the concerns, as many on social media pointed out.

In Season 2, Episode 9 — titled "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge — Marge Simpson leads a crusade of parents against the ultra-violent kid's cartoon, "Itchy & Scratchy," a parody of "Tom and Jerry." Eventually, the parents of Springfield try to recruit her to lead a campaign against the famous statue.

Marge, however, decides she does not want to protest against the work she calls a "masterpiece."

When she does an interview on the local news station, a viewer asks Marge how she can "be for one form of freedom of expression like our big naked friend over there, and not be for another form like Itchy & Scratchy?"

"Well, I guess I can't," Marge answers. "Which is a shame because I really hate those cartoons."

"I guess one person can make a difference, but most of the time, they probably shouldn't," she adds.