Katie O’Connell fights back at a school board meeting over her suspension for a Fetty Wap lyric in the yearbook.
Katie O’Connell, the principal of Trout Creek Academy in St. Johns County, showed up at a school board meeting and made it clear how she feels about the district’s decision to suspend her over Fetty Wap’s lyrics printed in a yearbook.
O’Connell didn’t hold back when addressing the board, pointing out the massive inconsistency in how the district handles discipline.
“This is your precedent, not reappointing me,” she told them, blasting the board for allowing superiors to sleep with subordinates and administrators, and for shuffling them around the schools instead of disciplining them.
“Here I am. A 26-year defamed, destroyed educator over a quote I did not proof or approve.”
The yearbook page featured a rather tame Fetty Wap lyric from “Trap Queen,” “Everybody hating, we just call them fans though,” attributed to her.
O’Connell says she never approved it for publication. She offered to fix the problem immediately. She wanted to reprint the yearbooks and remove the quote entirely, but the district refused to give her that option.
Instead, they chose suspension and non-reappointment. Supporters said there was a more nefarious reason.
They claim the controversy is manufactured to cover up a stabbing that allegedly happened at the school the week before O’Connell’s suspension, according to Action News Jax.
Fetty Wap himself got wind of what happened and sent O’Connell flowers with a handwritten note that read, “Dear Principal O’Connell, I hope these flowers lift up your spirit. Wishing you the best. God bless. From Wap and the team.”
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