CLAYTON, N.Y. – A New York middle school principal is facing the wrath of parents after he distributed ice cream to students who completed Common Core exams, but not to students whose parents opted them out of the tests.

“It didn’t bother my son, but it bothered me,” Teresa Clement, a mother of two Thousand Islands Middle School students, told the Watertown Daily Times. “It felt like bullying.”

Clement is among several parents who are upset that Thousand Islands principal Michael Bashaw, Jr. threw an ice cream party for students who completed the standardized tests, but left hundreds without.

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Parents of about 126 students opted their children out of the English portion of the Common Core tests, and 137 were opted out of the math portion. During lunch Friday, Bashaw called all students who completed both exams to the school’s art room for their special treats, according to the news site.

“It seems like they were throwing the party in the face of parents who opted out their kids,” parent Stephen Byers said.

Parents of students who were left out decided to take action.

Last weekend, at least eight families banded together to buy ice cream for the entire middle school, and Clement, Byers and others brought in the treats during the lunch hour Monday.

“A cafeteria monitor announced to the kids that everyone would be getting ice cream,” which prompted cheers and high-fives, Clement said.

In an email to the Daily Times, Bashaw said he has held an ice cream party to reward test takers every year, but students told their parents that’s not the case.

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Bashaw alleges officials “tried I every way to quietly reward the students who sat and worked very hard for six days of testing,” and he suspects that students didn’t take the tests simply because they didn’t want to, according to the news site.

“Consequently, we had many of our students who didn’t take the test merely because they didn’t want to take the test,” Bashaw wrote. “This is the reason that the middle school had more students refuse the test than elementary school. To say that all of these students were making a political statement is simply not true.”

Kristina Dorr, mother of a Thousand Islands 12-year-old, told the Daily Times she doesn’t think it’s right Bashaw punished students for their parents’ decision.

“It’s not the kids’ decision whether or not they take the exam,” Dorr said. “It’s the parents’ decision.”

Byers said “the ice cream party was just a small thing, but it seemed in poor taste to put on this show in front of the kids.”

According to Syracuse.com:

At least 150,000 students across the state opted out of the Math exam with 44 percent of districts reporting, according to a statewide opt out group tracking the number of students who refused to take the exams. The number of students statewide who opted out of the English language arts exam is now up to 191,625 with nearly 76 percent of districts reporting, according to the group.

In all, 1.1 million students in grades 3-8 were expected to take math and ELA exams, according to state officials.

And Thousand Islands wasn’t the only school to draw fire from parents for special treatment for students who took the Common Core tests.

Valley News reports parents Jhami Santillo and Heather Spear raised issues with administrators at Willsboro Central School when they learned their third-graders were left out of class fun time because they didn’t take the Common Core tests.

“She informed me she had to go to the library early because the kids who got to take the test got to take a walk, dance and exercise before the testing,” Santillo said. “When she got back to the classroom, one classmate was eating cheese balls.”

Lisa Mitchell, mother of a fourth-grader at Willsboro Central School, said her child and others were also left out for not taking the Common Core tests.