Students and families attending a graduation ceremony in an Atlanta suburb were stunned after principal Nancy Gordeuk — the founder of TNT Academy in Stone Mountain, GA — yelled racially charged statements about African-American attendees.
The incident occurred after Gordeuk accidentally ended the graduation ceremony before the class valedictorian was given a chance to speak. She attempted to wrangle the audience back into the auditorium, and quickly became frustrated when she was unable to do so.
"Look who’s leaving — all the Black people," Gordeuk shockingly shouted. "Y’all are the rudest people I’ve ever seen in my life. Close those doors. Close the doors, now!" The outburst was caught on video by several members of the audience.
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Many audience members expressed their outrage and revealed that the racist statements were just one moment in a long line of bizarre behavior from Gordeuk that day.
Attendee Brooklyn Jacobs spoke with local Atlanta news affiliate WAFB about the ceremony: “[Gordeuk] came up to the podium and was like, 'If your baby's crying, you need to do one of two things: You need to tape their mouth, or you need to get out because they shouldn't be here anyway.'"
Gordeuk apologized for stereotyping members of the audience immediately after the ceremony, blaming the devil for her actions.
“I'd like to apologize to everyone who was in the crowd," she said. "I'm sorry for what I said. Like I said, the devil was in the house.”
She later appeared on local news station CBS46 to apologize again, but continued to deny accountability for the incident, indirectly blaming the parents and students — in addition to the devil — for her words.
Read Gordeuks released a full statement to CBS46. Read it below:
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 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 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 group 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."
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 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 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 group 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."