The graduation ceremony at Georgia’s TNT Academy this past Friday took a turn for the awkward after the school’s principal made a remark about “all the black people” during the event. The school’s founder and principal Nancy Gordeuk had made a mistake in the program, skipping over the class Valedictorian’s speech and causing some confusion among the attendees. Several started to leave and prompted Gordeuk to take action, leading to the incident captured in these videos.
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Many have called for Gordeuk to step down or lose her job, and some have questioned the past history of the academy on social media. The response forced Gordeuk to write up a letter of apology according to NBC News:
“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,'” Gordeuk wrote in an apology letter. “I deeply apologize for my actions made in the emotional state of trying to let this last student finish his speech,” she wrote.
She also spoke to ABC in Georgia about the incident, clarifying why she made the comments and adding to her apology:
“It was not a statement of racism. It was just my frustration,” Gordeuk said. “I’m sorry it happened. So sorry, but God has forgiven me and we’ll just go on from there,”
The Georgia Accrediting Commission has been contacted about the academy and Gerdeuk’s comments, but they have no released an official statement yet.