The North Rockland School District could be out of a lot of money after canceling a guest speaker.
North Rockland's superintendent of schools spoke with News 12 after we received several complaints and questions from people in the school community about Angela Davis being invited to speak off campus with students next month.
"Our objective is to bring people together. Bring the school community together and have all voices heard. And when we realized that this was something that that was dividing our community and that people really felt passionately about it one way or another, we decided that it would be in the best interest of the North Rockland school community to cancel the event," said Dr. Kris Felicello, superintendent of the North Rockland Central School District.
News 12 reported about the cancellation last week.
Felicello says he worked with a group of students to invite Angela Davis to speak early next month in Nyack, which cost about $50,000.
He tells News 12 the school district had put the money out for it, but they were raising money back for it.
So far, it got about 10% of the cost.
Following the cancellation, Felicello believes the district will either get a full refund or credit to bring in a different speaker.
Davis is a known political activist and controversial figure to some groups.
"When I saw that this was really something that that people felt this passionately about, I certainly do not want to upset my community, and I know my kids don't want to upset our community. We're about bringing people together," says Felicello.
At this point, the district has no plans yet on another guest speaker.