A South Florida high school principal told a parent he “can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event.”
Spanish River High School Principal William Latson made the remarkable comment in an email to the mother of a student while discussing history curriculum, according to The Palm Beach Post.
“Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened,” Latson wrote in the email, adding that lessons are “not forced upon individuals as we all have the same rights but not all the same beliefs.”
The principal explained that the school holds annual Holocaust assemblies and one-day lessons for 10th graders.
Spanish River High School's principal told a parent he "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,” email records show.https://t.co/hwlCVRttAB
— Andrew Marra (@AMarranara) July 5, 2019
“We advertise it to the 10th grade parents as their [sic] are some who don’t want their children to participate and we have to allow them the ability to decline,” Latson said.
The mother, who wished to remain anonymous, reportedly countered, “The Holocaust is a factual, historical event. It is not a right or a belief.”
In an age where progressives are more concerned with being “morally right” than with being factually correct, Latson was not willing to grant this reality.
“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…” he said.
“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,” Latson added.
In a later statement to The Post, Latson apologized for the “verbiage” he used.
The statement read: “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. 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.”
Deputy Schools Superintendent Keith Oswald told the newspaper that Latson, who reportedly took a four-day trip last summer to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., is not facing any discipline.
“It was a hastily, poorly written email that he apologized for,” Oswald said. “That’s some of the challenge that we face when we email back and forth instead of picking up the phone.”
The greater issue does not appear to be the principal’s personal beliefs as much as it’s a desperate attempt to be politically correct and not offend those with extreme views.
That and the ever-growing intellectual wasteland that passes as education these days.
Here’s a quick sampling of the responses from Twitter:
I’m certain he believes the Holocaust occurred. But it is idiotic to tip toe around the feelings of the probably 10 kids in that school whose parents doubt the existence of the Holocaust. And what “rights” did he think applied here? The right NOT to hear stuff you disagree with?
— Matthew James Kiernan (@kujonicus) July 5, 2019
You can doubt existence of gravity and evolution, but that’s exactly the reason children go to school.
— Lina (@Lina4ka) July 6, 2019
“She didn’t doubt that Latson knew the Holocaust was real, she said in an interview, but she feared his reluctance to say so stemmed from a desire to avoid confronting parents who deny the Holocaust’s reality.”
Is the success of liberal democracy a post WW II aberration?
— Allan Peda (@allanpeda) July 6, 2019
Scandalous. Tiptoeing with the Holocaust is appalling.
— Dan Abramovitz (@danabram) July 7, 2019
None of us were around for the American Revolution American civil war, French Revolution, etc. Are they not facts unless you were physically there to see them?
— RAA (@AaaaAnderson12) July 7, 2019
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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