Krop HS magnet students accuse theater teacher of bullying, discrimination over canceled school trip
MIAMI -- A group of outraged seniors at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School say they are being discriminated against and are blaming their new theater teacher of bullying.
"We've been bullied for months now," senior student Jayden Jones said. "And it won't end."
"This is our future in her hands, and she's just playing with it," senior Joshua Harper said. "It's not cool or funny."
The school has a magnet program for the arts, and students told CBS 4 Thursday that they got a new theater teacher this year.
The high school seniors have been looking forward to attending the FTC conference in Central Florida in November, where representatives from more than 50 universities will be there, along with opportunities for student scholarships.
"It allows us to meet with colleges that we could never afford to visit," senior Zaire Brown said.
The students raised more than $5,000 to attend the convention but their teacher told them this week no one is going and it will no longer be a school-sponsored trip.
The students could make the trip on their own but they would have to find a chaperone and pay for all of their expenses.
The reason?
They say it has changed daily.
"I didn't think she was serious," said senior Amiya Roundtree. "This was our future, and you don't want us to go?"
At first, they were told they didn't have enough chaperones for the boys, and therefore the boys couldn't go, then they say the story changed.
"Then she said only three girls signed up on time, but that was a lie," Amiya said.
CBS 4 reached out to theater conference officials, and they said every student signed up on time.
The district sent CBS 4 a written statement: "It is unfortunate that in this case too few students completed the necessary travel and permission documents within the established timeline to allow the trip to move forward."
The district explained the teacher could have had a different deadline than the convention.
Amaiya Roundtree is the president of the students' theater group, and she said every senior in the theater program is a minority.
Roundtree and her classmates say this is an issue of discrimination.
"We have African-American boys, African-American girls, and you don't want to see us succeed?" Amiya said. "This is wrong, something needs to be done."
