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A Massachusetts high school principal has been relived of her duties after referring to students as "asshats" in administrative messages.
MassLive.com reports allegations against Northampton Principal Lori Vaillancourt stemmed from a former School Committee member Susan Voss obtaining a 267-page compilation of the messages through a public records request and releasing them.
Students and parents participated in a walkout protests once the revelation against Valillancourt were made public.
“I think it really represents how she views the student body,” said Northampton senior class president Kendall Reynolds via MassLive. “I don’t think she would have said those words if she viewed the student body positively.”
Voss made the records request in an effort to publicly show how the school made its decision to end its 9th and 10th grade honors math program and instead merge honors and non-honors students into one class.
Student Union members voiced their displeasure about the change and Vaillancourt wrote that the students were "trying to decide where to stand."
In a separate message, Vaillancourt wrote to a colleague: “Keep talking about equity and they will be in our camp. They are mad because they weren’t part of the decision-making.”
Vaillancourt issued a statement via email last Tuesday (March 15) apologizing for her use of the phrase.
"The word choice was unprofessional and hurtful and I apologize," she wrote, adding that she approved the student protest. “I hope time will allow the community to interpret my words as a human moment derived from workplace frustration."
Protesting students walked out of class last Wednesday (March 16), with many of them wearing "Hello, my name is Asshat" stickers in response to the release of the principal's private messages.
You can read more on this situation here.