An investigation has been launched after reports that a staff member at Watkins Elementary School in Washington, D.C., instructed third-grade students to reenact the Holocaust.
An email was reportedly sent to parents from the principal informing them that students were asked to portray digging ditches to serve as mass graves, shootings, and Adolf Hitler. According to the Washington Post, the student assigned to be Hitler was told to pretend to commit suicide.
The staff member allegedly made “anti-Semitic statements” during the Holocaust lesson, including telling students that the Germans were mad “because the Jews ruined Christmas”, according to the Post.
One parent told the Washington Post that a student was instructed to pretend to ride a train to a death camp and die in a gas chamber.
DC Public Schools told Fox News “Last week, we received a report of a classroom of students receiving a lesson that included portraying different perspectives of the Holocaust. Students should never be tasked with acting out any atrocity, especially genocide and war”.
“This was not an approved lesson plan, and we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident,” the district said, noting that it is “committed to creating a welcoming environment for all students”.
A mother told Fox 5 DC that “They are traumatized. One parent said that their child was worried the teacher in question was hiding at their house”.
“My husband picked up our child after school and there was a lot of sobbing and crying and distress,” another mother told the station.
The district said the staff member has been placed on leave pending an investigation.