This archive report was first published on 9 July 2019.
Florida's Palm Beach County school district has removed a high school principal from his position after he refused to acknowledge the Holocaust as a factual historical event.
William Latson, the principal of Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton, Florida, made the comments in an email exchange with a parent in April 2018. He stated that he could not say the Holocaust was a factual, historical event because he was not in a position to do so as a school district employee.
Latson's comments sparked an intense backlash in South Florida, which has a significant Jewish population and is home to many Holocaust survivors. Thousands of people signed an online petition calling for his resignation, and on Monday, the school district announced that he would be stripped of his position as principal and reassigned to another job in the district.
The district's decision comes as memory of the Holocaust is fading and anti-Semitism is on the rise. Florida is among the states working to combat that; under state law, all school districts must offer Holocaust education.
Latson had previously apologized for his comments, stating that he regretted the verbiage he used and that it did not accurately reflect his professional and personal commitment to educating all students about the atrocities of the Holocaust.
However, school officials had decided that Latson had become a 'major distraction' and that it was in the best interest of students and the larger school community to reassign him.
Latson's removal is the latest in a series of controversies related to anti-Semitism and Holocaust education in the United States. In recent years, there have been several incidents of students displaying swastikas and giving Nazi salutes, and a study found that many Americans lack basic knowledge of the Holocaust.
