The director of an alternative school in an Atlanta suburb has issued an apology after videos circulated on social media of her making a racially-charged comment during a graduation ceremony.
The video shows Nancy Gordeuk, director of TNT Academy in Stone Mountain, reprimanding audience members for leaving the commencement before the Valedictorian could speak.
Even more decided to leave after Gordeuk said, "Look who's leaving — all the black people."
Shakel Forman, a mother of one of the graduates, told NBC Owned Stations that Gordeuk had accidentally dismissed the audience before the Valedictorian could make his speech.
Gordeuk told NBC affiliate 11Alive that she was initially irked by an unidentified man who walked to the front of the auditorium and began recording the ceremony.
Forman said that Gordeuk told the man to stop because the Valedictorian was going to speak. After the man ignored her request, she asked police to remove the man from the ceremony.
"Once the police came in, everybody was kinda thrown off for her even asking for the actual police to come in to remove him, so the crowd was already agitated," Forman said. "It wasn't that serious."
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After asking police to come escort the man out of the ceremony, Gordeuk made the comment.
"When I looked up all I saw was black families leaving, and thus the comment," Gordeuk told NBC News.
“That’s when it got chaotic, and everything went downhill from there,” Forman said.
"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, according to NBC News. "I deeply apologize for my actions made in the emotional state of trying to let this last student finish his speech."
TNT Academy says on its website that it is a "non-traditional educational center" that allows middle and high school students to engage in independent study.
The school is accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission, which did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
