Leron McAdoo, an educator, activist and prominent figure in the Central Arkansas arts scene, has been accused of sexual assault. An accusation first appeared on social media on Tuesday, Oct 1.
Named Little Rock’s first poet laureate in 2023, McAdoo is a teacher at Dr. Marian G. Lacey K-8 Academy, where he’s currently on paid leave pending an investigation by the Little Rock School District, LRSD spokesperson Pamela Smith told the Arkansas Times.
The allegations first came to the attention of the Times by way of a social media post made Tuesday by Rari Wright, a 21-year-old model from Little Rock.
In her post, Wright said she was sexually assaulted by McAdoo on Aug. 7, while posing for a nude photo shoot. Wright said she and McAdoo were the only people present at The House of Art (108 E. 4th St.), an art gallery and spoken word poetry event space in North Little Rock. McAdoo nonconsensually “put his fingers inside of me and his mouth on me,” Wright said in an Instagram post.
Wright filed a report with the North Little Rock Police Department on Aug. 14 that contains similar details. In the report, officer Jacob House wrote that Wright told him that McAdoo “gave her unconsented oral sex and penetrated her digitally. She continued to advise me that he has made contact with her via phone call and admitted what he did was wrong.” Community journalist Russ Racop obtained a copy of the police report, and you can read it here.
Wright’s public testimony on Instagram can be found in its entirety below:
On Tuesday, an email from Lacey Academy Principal Don Porter went out to the parents of students there stating that “we were made aware of a social media post today with a serious allegation of inappropriate behavior involving a staff member.” The email went on to say that “our initial investigation determined that the allegation was made by an adult and did not involve any students or staff at Lacey, nor did it happen on school grounds. … Because this is a personnel matter, we will not be able to provide additional comments.”
The Times reached out to McAdoo for comment, but has not yet heard back from him.  100vw, 780px”>Leron McAdoo (file photo) <span class=)
In response to the allegations, some local groups have already made efforts to distance themselves from McAdoo. On Wednesday, the social justice-inspired 7th Street Mural Project posted to their Facebook page that they had “collectively as a group, decided to remove LeRon Mcadoo from the 7th Street Murals in support of the victims of sexual assault who have come forward about their experiences with him during photo shoots at the House of Art.”
McAdoo was added to the series of murals in 2020 after artist Nicole Stewart heard a speech he gave during the Black Lives Matter protests. “I wanted to paint Leron because he is involved in the movement, he’s involved in the protests and activism and he’s given this incredible speech and I wanted to put him on the wall because he is very much a part of this, everyone looks up to him, he’s extremely expressive and I feel a lot of people should know more about him,” Stewart said in a December 2020 story from the Pine Bluff Commercial.
Visible in photos below, McAdoo’s likeness has been painted over and artists with the 7th Street Mural Project are working on a plan to replace it with modern art. “The purpose of the murals is to promote Justice and peace within the community amongst all and we have zero tolerance for this type of behavior,” their Facebook note continued.
Additionally, Step Into My Office — an open mic series founded by Leron’s slow son, Norel McAdoo, who died in a car accident in January, and now run by Leron’s daughter, Jamee McAdoo — announced that it would no longer be holding its monthly meetings at The House of Art due to the allegations. “To us, Step Into My Office means to enter a SAFE arts space full of love and respect,” Jamee McAdoo wrote on Instagram. “The SIMO team does not condone anything less and will not tolerate anyone in our spaces that doesn’t align with our values.”
Leron McAdoo has long been a trusted, vocal and celebrated member of the Little Rock community. He has taught in the Little Rock Public School District for nearly three decades. Before coming to Lacey Academy, he worked at Dunbar Magnet Middle School, Henderson Middle School, Southwest Middle School, Cloverdale Middle School, Hamilton Learning Academy, Booker T. Washington Elementary School and Central High School.
In June 2020, the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network — an Arkansas Times affiliate — published a profile of McAdoo and 8 other local activists, highlighting their organizing efforts following the murder of George Floyd.
“Speaking before a crowd on the Capitol steps on Sunday, June 7, LeRon McAdoo demonstrated the abilities he’s honed over the past 30 years as a hip-hop MC and radio personality, as an educator, and as an activist and community organizer. When he called on protesters not to again press ‘snooze’ in the wake of America’s latest national outrage over police brutality directed at Black men, the crowd full of high school and college-age youth, wearing cloth masks in the battering 90-degree sun, raised their voices to offer shouted affirmation that Black Lives do indeed Matter,” Frederick McKindra wrote at the time.
