╌>

Public school principal says he must be ‘politically neutral’ about the Holocaust

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  john-russell  •  5 years ago  •  11 comments

Public school principal says he must be ‘politically neutral’ about the Holocaust
He insisted that educating children about Holocaust can be “introduced” but not “forced” because “we all have the same right but not all the same beliefs.”

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



Public school principal says he must be ‘politically neutral’ about the Holocaust




public-school-principal-says-he-must-be-

“I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee,” Florida HS principal William Latson told a student’s mother via email.

He insisted that educating children about Holocaust can be “introduced” but not “forced” because “we all have the same right but not all the same beliefs.”

When the mother insisted the Holocaust is a factual, historical event, not a right or a belief, the principal countered, “Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened….I have the role to be politically neutral but support all groups in the school.”

“How do you pick and choose history?” the frustrated mother told the Palm Beach Post later.

If such mass psychosis abounds—forcing history to be selective and politically neutral—then a tattered letter at Dachau concentration camp (translated from German to English) will ring even more true:

“What we don’t remember will happen again.”

More in The JPost



Tags

jrDiscussion - desc
[]
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    5 years ago
The student's mother had asked Latson about how Holocaust education was prioritized. She responded to Latson's email, saying, "The Holocaust is a factual, historical event. It is not a right or a belief."

But the principal responded otherwise: "Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened and you have your thoughts but we are a public school and not all of our parents have the same beliefs so they will react differently, my thoughts or beliefs have nothing to do with this because I am a public servant. I have the role to be politically neutral but support all groups in the school."

The mother told the  Palm Beach Post  that she came out of the conversation "feeling so much worse.... How do you pick and choose history?"

The mother requested that students read  Night  by Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and for there to be Holocaust assemblies for all grade levels. The reading has been implemented, but not the assemblies.

"I regret that the verbiage that I used when responding to an email message from a parent, one year ago, did not accurately reflect my professional and personal commitment to educating all students about the atrocities of the Holocaust," replied Latson to the  Palm Beach Post  on Friday. "It is critical that, as a society, we hold dear the memory of the victims and hold fast to our commitment to counter antisemitism."
 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2  seeder  JohnRussell    5 years ago

I think that ANY sort of ambivalence or questioning , or denial of the Holocaust is proof of anti-semitism. And it is something that cant really be walked back. How do you walk back having said that there may be a question about the historical reality of the murder of 6 million Jews and some millions of others?

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
2.2  Greg Jones  replied to  JohnRussell @2    5 years ago

This moron should be forced to watch some of the videos of films taken during that time which were recently shown on National Geographic and other channels a few weeks ago. One entitled "Hitler's Final Days" was particularly graphic, gruesome, and disturbing in showing the brutality and evilness of both the Germans and Russians.

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
2.2.1  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  Greg Jones @2.2    5 years ago
This moron should be forced to watch some of the videos of films taken during that time which were recently shown on National Geographic and other channels a few weeks ago.

Agreed. Teaching the holocaust should be no different than teaching that WWII happened. We have the testimony, we have the mass graves, we have the photos and videos, we have tens of thousands of eye witness testimony taken during the Nuremberg trials and even confessions and damning documents from Nazi officers. Reasonable persons can only ask how anyone, with such a preponderance of evidence, would continue to refute the holocaust, or perhaps the better question, why? But then I remember there are still those who imagine the world to be flat or only 9,000 years old. I guess it's true what they say, you can fix ignorance with education, but you just can't fix stupid.

I do suspect that those who are in denial about this aren't so much in denial that it happened, but whether it was a bad thing or that nearly 7 million Jews were killed. For some reason white supremacists and wannabe Nazi's prefer to believe there were far fewer casualties and that the things Hitler was saying about the Jews in their society were true and thus any action taken against them was somehow justified. That's just a guess as to some of these deniers reasons for denying such an irrefutable part of world history.

 
 
 
It Is ME
Masters Guide
3  It Is ME    5 years ago

"HS principal William Latson - I have the role to be politically neutral but support all groups in the school.”"

That is one Dumb Fuck for sure !

There is nothing "Political" about the "Holocaust" ! It just WAS, and HAPPENED !

 
 
 
FLYNAVY1
Professor Guide
4  FLYNAVY1    5 years ago

Hell,  I'll donate to a fund to fly him for a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Then I want whatever university that principal Latson graduated from to revoke his degree/s.

From what I understand, the 2,500-student high school near Boca Raton where he is the principal is thought to have one of the county’s largest Jewish student populations.

 

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
4.1  Perrie Halpern R.A.  replied to  FLYNAVY1 @4    5 years ago
Hell,  I'll donate to a fund to fly him for a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Then I want whatever university that principal Latson graduated from to revoke his degree/s.

Can I donate to the fund?

From what I understand, the 2,500-student high school near Boca Raton where he is the principal is thought to have one of the county’s largest Jewish student populations.

That is true, which is one of the most disturbing parts of the story. If this moron is pushing this warped ideology of history there, it could become a problem in places where there would be no push back.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
5  Tacos!    5 years ago

With this mindset, how would you teach anything historical?

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
6  Tacos!    5 years ago

I am reminded of an incident in graduate school when a fellow student who had immigrated from Turkey insisted that the Armenian holocaust never happened. The professor made a limited attempt to convince her otherwise and some other students did as well. As the grandson of an Armenian woman who had told us many times of what happened in those days I was stunned at the exchanges going on around me.

But ultimately, it was quickly apparent to everyone in the room that we weren't going to force-change this woman's mind, so we just had to accept that this was what she was going to believe. This is simply the propaganda kids in that country are taught in their schools.

For context, it wasn't a class on Armenian history, it was a practicum on designing history courses for secondary schools and colleges. So, any individual perspective on a specific event wasn't a critical concern for the class. Still, I was amazed at what I had seen and heard.

 
 

Who is online


Ronin2


93 visitors