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A high school principal in Florida who refused to acknowledge the Holocaust as “a factual, historical event” was fired by the Palm Beach County school board on Wednesday.
The school board voted 5 to 2 to accept the recommendation of the district superintendent to fire the principal, William Latson, who worked at Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton, according to Julie Houston Trieste, a spokeswoman for the school district.
The Palm Beach County school board fired the principal, William Latson, after a 2018 email in which he told a parent that he couldn’t call the Holocaust a “historical event” was made public.
According to The NY Times, Mr. Latson was the principal at Spanish River High for 11 years before he was reassigned last July, after emails he sent to a student’s parent in April 2018 came to light.
“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,” Mr. Latson wrote in one of the emails, which were obtained by The Palm Beach Post. Latson said he had to separate his personal views about the Holocaust from his job as a public school official.
“I do allow information about the Holocaust to be presented and allow students and parents to make decisions about it accordingly,” he wrote. “I do the same with information about slavery.”
Thousands of people signed on to a Change.org petition calling for his termination. School board officials then removed him from his position and reassigned him to an unspecified job, calling the fallout from his controversial comments “a major distraction.”
A spokesperson for the Palm Beach School Board said that Latson can appeal the decision, which will take effect Nov. 21.
“These are the facts: He is not anti-Semitic; he believes the Holocaust is factual,” Thomas Elfers, Mr. Latson’s lawyer, told board members on Wednesday.
