A high school principal who said he couldn’t confirm the Holocaust was a ‘factual, historical event’ has been fired.
William Latson, who was the head of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton in Florida, told a student’s mother that the mass slaughter of six million Jews is a ‘belief’ that students don’t have to learn.
The Palm Beach County School Board voted 5-2 Wednesday to terminate his employment effective from November 21, online records from the meeting show.
The district said there was ‘just cause’ to end his employment, criticizing him for his response to the global media attention his emails received.
Latson had been reassigned to a district job after it emerged he sent the email to the parent in April telling her ‘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’.
The district said in a statement confirming his termination: ‘While his email was receiving global news coverage, Mr. Latson failed to respond to communications from his supervisors and failed to assist the District in addressing the serious disruption caused by the aforementioned email and news coverage.’
High school principal William Latson, pictured, was the head of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton. He told a student’s mother that the mass slaughter of six million Jews is a ‘belief’
The Palm Beach County School Board voted 5-2 Wednesday to terminate his employment effective from November 21 after he was at first reassigned to a district job from his role at Spanish River High School, pictured
The board had said when reassigning him that while Latson has apologized, ‘his leadership has become a major distraction’.
Superintendent Donald E. Fennoy wrote to Latson earlier this month telling him he planned to recommend his termination.
Officials said the incident began when a student’s mother sent an email to Latson inquiring how the Holocaust was taught, according to a series of emails seen by the Palm Beach Post.
In his response, the principal remarked that he couldn’t ‘say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee’.
He added that not all students’ parents believe the Holocaust happened.
The mother, who did not wish to be named, replied that: ‘The Holocaust is a factual, historical event. It is not a right or a belief.’
However, the principal insisted: ‘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…’
This summer, Latson spent four days in Washington, DC, touring the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a trip paid for by a nonprofit that promotes Holocaust awareness. He posted this tweet on February 5
Latson, pictured, reportedly told a parent that ‘not everyone believes the Holocaust happened’ after they had sent an email to Latson asking how the Holocaust is taught in school
Later, the principal explained that he is not a so-called Holocaust denier, rather that he views it as his place to remain neutral on all matters of politics.
Latson’s ill-considered response led the mother to launch a year-long effort to tackle what she called the school leader’s failure to separate truth from myth regarding the genocide of an estimated 6 million Jews under Germany’s Nazi regime.
Following their interaction, all 10th-grade English students are required to read ‘Night,’ a classic Holocaust memoir by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.
At the time, students were assigned to read only passages from the book, and the mother said that in her child’s class the readings hadn’t occurred.
This summer, Latson spent four days in Washington, DC, touring the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a trip paid for by a nonprofit that promotes Holocaust awareness.
Latson’s ill-considered response led the mother to launch a year-long effort to tackle what she called the school leader’s failure to separate truth from myth regarding the genocide of an estimated 6 million Jews under Germany’s Nazi regime. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is pictured
Latson said in a statement that his time in the museum served as ‘a poignant lesson and reminder of one of the most horrific events in human history’.
He also apologized for his remarks to the mother in a statement to the 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.’
He said that in the apology that ‘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’.
Spanish River High School is in Boca Raton, which is a community that has a large Jewish population. The Holocaust is taught in ninth and 10th grades at the high school.