Principal Throws Out Teachers’ Desks Because She Doesn’t Want Them Sitting, Teachers Are Furious

A high school principal has provoked the ire of her teachers by removing their desks from the school and insisting that they don’t need to sit in order to do their jobs.

Donna Connelly, who is the principal at PS 24, the Spuyten Duyvil School based in Riverdale, recently decided to act upon her decision to remove all of their desks, as well as their filing cabinets.

According to the New York Post, Connelly asked each of the teachers to empty out the desks and filing cabinets of their personal belongings and teaching apparatus.

Then, while class was in session, each of the teachers were asked to push their cabinets and desks into the hallway. At this point, janitors and custodians drag and then threw the desks outside, where they then took their place alongside the trash and garbage.

This is when the drama at the school really started to kick in, though, because the teachers were soon bemused and apoplectic about what Donna Connelly had done with their desks, and they began to question her motives and decision.

However, according to a source for the NYP, when they approached Connelly and asked her why she had done this, the principal simply responded that she “does not want them sitting,” before adding, “It’s the 21st century – you don’t need desks.”

There were clearly some bugs to Connelly’s master plan though, because teachers immediately had questions for how and where they were going to do some of the necessary work.

After they asked Donna Connelly where they were now supposed to store their supplies for class, the insider claimed that she responded, “Figure it out.”

The source then added that all of the teachers’ “stuff is in boxes, bags, and on the radiators.”

Then teachers asked here where they were now supposed to grader their papers, to which Connelly remarked, “Use the lunch room.”

While each of their desks and filing cabinets were kicked out of their classrooms, the teachers were at least left with some chairs to sit on. But in order to abide by Connelly’s request, they had to remove student paperwork as well as some devices that were used to assist children suffering from ailments and disease, including asthma.

Meanwhile, during the removal of their desks the children at the school were forced to watch their teachers become and more upset as their desks were taken away from them with them even being consulted.

“The kids saw their teachers upset about what was going on,” the insider added. “It was dehumanizing.”

It didn’t take long for the teachers to take to Facebook to register their disgust with what had happened. However, these posts were soon removed and deleted.

The Post were able to grab some of the quotes though, which were in response to the picture of the huge pile of desks on the Facebook page.

Some of them read, “Thirty years in the system and I’ve never seen anything like this,” while another wrote, “How the f*** does someone with so little good sense become a principal? What kind of policy allows this to happen?” Another simply wrote, “She is nuts!”

There has been a response to this debacle. As the story spread around the internet Melodie Mashel, who works as District 10 Superintendent, forced the desks to be removed from public view. But rather than being taken back to the classrooms, the source revealed they were instead taken to basement.

What makes Donna Connelly’s request even more peculiar is that PS 24 is actually one of the most impressively performing schools in the five boroughs. It is a K-5 school, which is where diverse students that are grading high above the average state exam results are taught.

[Image via Shutterstock/Alex Oakenman & Shutterstock/yuyangc & Shutterstock/Africa Studio]