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Parents Want Principal Ousted, Claim She Humiliates Students

DENVER (CBS4) - Denver Public Schools is set to make a decision about the future of an elementary school principal.

Kalpana Rao
Kalpana Rao (credit: CBS)

Parents are upset with Kalpana Rao, prinicipal at Cheltenham Elementary School, because they say she makes misbehaving children eat on the floor and she has allegedly made racist remarks.

Cheltenham Elementary School is located on the 1500 block of Julian Street, just west of Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

"The principal need to be out because there no trust. The parents don't believe in her," said Veronica Dufner, a member of the group Padres & Jovenes Unidos which held a rally this week in hopes of getting Rao fired.

rally
(credit: CBS)

Rao says it's a misunderstanding. She says students who are asked to see the dean during lunch are allowed to eat their meal and often end up on the floor due to a lack of chairs in the office.

Cheltenham Elementary School,
(credit: CBS)

"If they're waiting at that time for the dean and they need to eat their lunch, they were eating their lunch on the floor while they were waiting. The consequence was never to eat on the floor," Rao said.

DPS officials say they have been investigating the allegations for several months and will make a decision about Rao's future on Friday afternoon.

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