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[h=4]Ga. school director loses it, goes racial[/h]Nancy Gordeuk's comments about black people at her school's graduation went viral.
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The director of a small private school caused quite a stir when she made a racially charged statement during a graduation ceremony. The incident was caught on camera and though she has since apologized, many parents are still angry. VPC
A small Atlanta-area private school is at the center of a national firestorm after the school's director made a racially charged statement.(Photo: 11Alive)
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. – A small Atlanta-area private school is at the center of a national firestorm after the school's white director made a racially charged statement during a chaotic graduation ceremony Friday night.
Nancy Gordeuk, founder and director of TNT Academy, later apologized to parents via email, saying she let her emotions get the best of her.
"A terrible mistake on my part of the graduation ceremony on Friday night," Gordeuk wrote. "The devil was in the house and came out from my mouth. I deeply apologize for my racist comment and hope that forgiveness is in your hearts."
During the graduation ceremony Friday night at First Baptist Church in Liburn, Ga., Gordeuk mistakenly dismissed the assembly before the class valedictorian could give his speech.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gordeuk made the incendiary comment as she tried to regain the attention of graduates and their families.
"She forgot the final speech. So she dismissed us all at first," said one of the graduates, Donte Lambert. "Then she told everyone to come back. One parent got mad and he told his child to come on," Lambert said.
Gordeuk also told WSB-TV that she was frustrated in part because an unknown person had walked to the front of the auditorium to record the graduation ceremony. After asking him to sit down, she later called security, but not before calling him a "goober" and a "coward."
According to video recordings of the ceremony posted to social media, those comments appeared to cause an unrelated family to walk out with their graduate.
Gordeuk then addressed her mistake about the valedictorian to the crowd.
"You people are being so rude to not listen to this speech," Gordeuk told the audience, according to the video recordings. "It was my fault that we missed it in the program. Look who's leaving -- all the black people."
Several black honors graduates appear to walk off the stage in protest. Cell-phone video recorded by audience members has since gone viral.
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During the graduation ceremony for TNT Academy Friday night, Nancy Gordeuk, the founder and director of the school, made controversial comments.
"It's just very sad," Jada Gibson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday.
Gibson, who was among those who posted videos of the comments online, attended the ceremony to support her cousin, who was graduating.
She said each of the school's 48 graduates had to pay between $250 and $300 for the ceremony, which she said was marred throughout by Gordeuk's comments — including, Gibson said, an aside about a crying baby that should have its mouth taped shut.
"She needs to get out of that field of being a teacher or a motivator. She doesn't need to be in that field at all," said Shakel Forman, Donte Lambert's mother.
TNT Academy is what's known in school circles as a nontraditional education center.
It offers classes and independent study for seventh- through 12th-graders and also provides credit recovery for public school students who have failed a class at their regular school.
Gordeuk was unavailable for comment this weekend. Her full statement read:
"A terrible mistake on my part was part of the graduation ceremony on Friday night. The devil was in the house and came out from my mouth. I deeply apologize for my racist comment and hope that forgiveness in in your hearts. We all make mistakes and anyone who knows me realizes that I try my hardest to work with the students for them to obtain their goal of a high school diploma.
"I do not think I have discriminated against any family in the school. I just pray you will realize I am a human and make mistakes just like everyone else does and be willing to forgive and move forward instead of concentrating on the bad of the situation.
"To address the incident at the graduation ceremony of May 8. Please keep the facts in perspective. An unknown man at the beginning of a speech decided to walk up to the front of the audience with his tablet, videotaping the audience and the students causing disruption to the audience and disrespect to the ceremony and its participants. When disregarding the request (to) please sit down, the security was asked to remove the man. At that point, booing of the request commenced.
"Frustrated with the prospect of ruining the once-in-a-lifetime ceremony the graduates have worked so hard for, my emotions got the best of me and that is when I blurted out "you people are being so rude to not listen to this speech (valedictorian). It was my fault that we missed the speech in the program." I look to the left where the man was and all I saw was a mass of people leaving and I said, 'Look who's leaving, all the black people.' At that point, members of the audience began to leave.
"The facts are the rude booing from my perspective facing the audience condoning the actions of this man, are coming from the younger people in the audience. What if ten or twenty persons came and started videotaping the audience in the middle of a speech. Is that disrespect to the person trying to make his speech? Or does that mean everyone can just do as they please?
"I sincerely apologize to all the persons in attendance at the ceremony for the actions of the few causing the disturbance and for my emotional, un-called (for) generalization of the black persons in attendance. I deeply apologize for my actions made in the emotional state of trying to let this last student finish his speech.
"I take a personal interest in the success of every student that comes through our doors without regard to their race, religion or ethnicity. My main concern for each is to provide them with an education and high school diploma to be able to continue on the pathway toward adulthood to become a successful member of society.
"You will find many, many parents of all races, religions and ethnic groups that have been serviced by our school and are very appreciative of our efforts on the behalf of their students. This same group of students had the same support we have given to every other graduating class. It is very easy to judge someone, however, we all make mistakes, as we are only human.
"Again, I deeply apologize for my offensive comment in the heat of my emotional state in trying to achieve respect for a student to be able to speak."
Contributing: Associated Press
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