School’s out for the Florida principal who questioned whether the Holocaust was a “factual, historical event.”
Spanish River High School Principal William Latson, in Boca Raton, was reassigned Monday, just days after an explosive Palm Beach Post report about his reluctance to improve the school’s Holocaust curriculum.
Last year, Latson told a concerned parent that the school curriculum includes a “variety of activities” related to the World War II-era genocide, but that the lessons are “not forced upon individuals as we all have the same rights but not all the same beliefs,” according to emails obtained by the Palm Beach Post.
“Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened,” Latson wrote. “And you have your thoughts, but we are a public school and not all of our parents have the same beliefs.”
He also claimed that his role prohibited him from passing judgment.
“Mr. Latson made a grave error in judgment in the verbiage he wrote in an email stating, ‘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,” the Palm Beach County School District said in a statement Monday, according to the Sun Sentinel. “In addition to being offensive, the principal’s statement is not supported by either the School District Administration or the School Board.”
After a lengthy battle with the mother, Latson agreed to assign “Night” to all sophomores, but the assemblies were never put in place, according to the Palm Beach Post. Deputy Schools Superintendent Keith Oswald told the newspaper that the school didn’t have time to implement the change, but that they will begin for the 2019-2020 year.
Latson apologized for the emails in a statement to the newspaper.
“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,” he wrote. “It is critical that, as a society, we hold dear the memory of the victims and hold fast to our commitment to counter anti-Semitism.”
