Photo Credit: Daily Caller
One of the parents of a Spanish River Community High School student in Boca Raton, Florida wanted to know how the Holocaust was being taught at this school, but the principal's answer was anything but encouraging. He stated that the school could not teach kids more about the Holocaust because, as a public school, they need to respect everyone's beliefs.
According to Patheos, the principal of the above mentioned school, William Latson, wrote in an email that not everyone thinks that the Holocaust happened; and that he cannot say that it was a factual, historical event. So, as an educator, he had to be politically neutral and support all groups in the school.
It is good for a school to have a principal who supports everybody’s rights; but on the other hand, the role of a school is to educate students, especially when it comes to important history events such as the Holocaust. There is a lot to learn from history, and knowledge about the Holocaust can help us avoid something like that in the future. That is why denying the Holocaust and making people forget that it happened can be very dangerous. Questioning the Holocaust is to deny it. What’s even worse, is when that denial comes from a person who is the head of a school.
The principal made his comments more than a year ago and the parent has been trying to draw public attention to him ever since. Meanwhile, Latson has come around apologizing and saying it was a poor choice of words. “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,” Latson wrote in a statement to the Palm Beach Post, as Patheos reports. “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,” he continued. He pointed out that Spanish River High’s educational offerings on the Holocaust exceed the state’s requirements.
Latson's response and his apology are promising but still the question about his motives remains. It is unclear whether he did this in response to bad publicity and because of the continued efforts of parents; or because of his decision to make sure kids understand the atrocity that occurred within the lifetime of people who are still alive today.
