A high school principal had to face outrage after telling the mother of a student that the Holocaust is a ‘belief’ that students don’t have to learn.
William Latson, who is the head of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton told the parents that Holocaust education ”is to be introduced but not forced upon individuals, as we all have the same right but not all the same beliefs.”
That mother, who did not want to reveal her name replied: ”The Holocaust is a factual, historical event. It is not a right or a belief.”
The principal explained her, ”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 principal said he is not a Holocaust denier.
”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 wrote in the email to the mother.
Latson told The Palm Beach Post: ”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.”
He also spent the summer taking a tour to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to promote Holocaust awareness.