A new school principal has outraged parents at a Florida elementary after she attempted to improve grades by ordering only her black students into a special assembly where they were warned they risk jail.

The fourth and fifth-grade students at Bunnell Elementary School were pulled together, irrespective of their test scores, and told that black students were underperforming.

‘It became racial for me when they included and boxed all of the black children together no matter if they were below average, average or above average,’ the mother of one high-performing student said.

Parents said their children were warned those with lower grades have a higher chance of going to jail, getting shot or getting killed.

But they were offered the chance to win 'a meal from McDonalds' if they improved their scores.

Bunnell Elementary School principal has only been in the job since July

School district interim superintendent LaShakia Moore made it clear that the principal needed to improve her performance

The Florida elementary school has 227 black children among its 1,168 students

‘Now when my daughter has to go take a test, that’s in the back of her mind,’ parent Jacinda Arrington told WOFL.

‘They segregated our kids in 2023, they segregated our nine-year-olds.’

The school in Flagler county has 227 black and 696 whites among its 1,168 students and was allocated an overall C grade by the Florida Department of Education last year.

Principal Donelle Evensen only stepped into the role at the end of July but she has already been hauled into the office of school district interim superintendent LaShakia Moore.

‘I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with Bunnell Elementary Principal Donelle Evensen following an assembly of 4th and 5th-grade students,’ Ms Moore wrote in a statement.

‘We have been able to talk about what led to this assembly and steps that were or were not taken before or after it.

‘In speaking with Mrs. Evensen, it is clear there was no malice intended in planning this student outreach.

'However, sometimes, when you try to think “outside the box”, you forget why the box is there.’

The state has been at the center of an education debate since Governor Ron DeSantis pushed through his ‘Stop Woke Act’ to limit discussion of race, and approved a curriculum claiming that slavery equipped slaves with skills they found useful.

County School Board Chair Cheryl Massaro said the latest row had nothing to do with the Republican presidential contender, but was the school’s mistake.

All the black students were told 'the problem' is that they are underperforming

Parents Jacinda Arrington (left) and Alexis Smith (right) were among those appalled by the racially divisive assembly

‘It wasn’t a great idea,’ she told the Washington Post.

‘It’s sad that it was segregated by race because that’s not fair, but that’s what happened.’

Parents said their children remained upset after attending Friday’s assembly.

‘So I’m going to die, I’m going to get shot, I’m going to go to jail if I don’t do right, so now he’s panicking,’ said Alexis Smith.

‘They’re still innocent, they still play with action figures, so now we have to overparent because of something that happened at their safe space at their school?’