High School Principal fired for “holocaust denial” rehired with back pay

Principal Latson spotlighting all the "Holocaust educators" at his school in his Twitter account, dated February. Probably most "instructors" are uncredentialed volunteers; who knows how much time and school resources are used up in this purely political, forced endeavor.

By Carolyn Yeager

WILLIAM LATSON WAS FIRED IN OCTOBER LAST YEAR after 20 years employment with the Palm Beach County, Florida school district. It was because of a series of emails he sent to a parent in April 2018 explaining his decision to allow students to form their own opinion on the facts of "The Holocaust.”

The emails surfaced when the student's mother revealed them to the school board. In the exchange, Latson (left), who is black, wrote that students were allowed to disbelieve in the Holocaust lessons because “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened” and that as an educator his role was “to be politcally neutral.” This implies he correctly sees the teaching of the Holocaust in schools as a political issue, more than historical.

The parent insisted the Holocaust was an historical fact. Latson replied to her in writing that “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.” He added,

“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 and 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. 

I work to expose students to certain things, but not all parents want their students exposed so they will not be and I can’t force that issue.

I do allow information about the Holocaust to be presented and allow students and parents to make decisions about it accordingly. I do the same with information about slavery, I don’t take a position but allow for the information to be presented.

Latson was the principal of Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton, a Florida city with a large Jewish population. Holocaust education is given to students in the 10th and 11th grades; apparently a portion of the curriculum is comprised of self-styled holocaust 'survivors' volunteering to speak to classes about their experience.

The idea that students, with their parents' permission, could opt out of these lessons enraged some parents and school board members. The unnamed parent involved in the email exchange launched a year-long effort to tackle what she called the school leader's failure to separate truth from myth regarding the widespread belief in “the genocide of an estimated 6 million Jews.”

That effort culminated in Latson's firing when the emails leaked to the press in July 2019. An international controversy developed because it came at a time when it's claimed there was increased concern about anti-Semitism in the US and Europe. The school board defended it's decision to fire Latson “not for the comments, but because of failure to carry out job responsibilities” such as “not responding to messages from school district officials” even though it happened that Latson had gone on vacation to Jamaica the very day that media outlets began to cover the story. When he returned and found he had been terminated, he appealed. He argued that his firing was not based on “just cause” or the reasons given but was a ploy by the district to defuse the intense criticism his comments generated.

This past August, a Tallahassee judge sided with Latson, saying that students at Spanish River were still learning about the Holocaust, as required by Florida law, and saying there was not a 'preponderance of the evidence that the principal engaged in misconduct in office, incompetence, or gross insubordination” as required for termination. The judge said that Mr. Latson had “communicated well with students, teachers, and parents, except for the one parent.” He concluded Dr. Latson could be transferred to another position within the District based on his “poor choices in communicating to that parent the idea that everyone at S.R.H.S. has the right to their individual beliefs, even if they differed from the required, approved curriculum.” The judge appeared not to think that was fully acceptable.

But really, every person, even high school students, has the right to their own beliefs no matter what a school teaches, and no one can change that—which is the whole problem with Holocaust education, and that is what drives Jews crazy. Like the sole known Jewish person on the school board, Karen Brill, who called Latson's rehiring “a stain on the school district that will never go away, and it's not just a local stain in Palm Beach County, it's a national stain.”

The regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Florida, Sheri Zvi, said that her group was disappointed that Mr. Latson would be reinstated because of his “disturbing comments about the Holocaust and his failure to take responsibility for them.”

“We continue to believe that he should not be part of the Palm Beach County school system,” she said.

The vote to reinstate Dr. Latson was 4-3, with School Board Chairman Frank Barbieri and members Karen Brill and Erica Whitfield opposed. Brill voiced her outrage at the vote by stating, as reported by the Miami Herald:

‘I hope you understand, Dr. Latson, that this is on you and that you finally take accountability for your words and actions. On behalf of the 17 million people who died in the Holocaust [?] ... I will not support the judge’s and superintendent’s recommendation.’

Board member Chuck Shaw said it was unfortunate Latson's comments had permanently tarnished the public schools' image, but he primarily blamed the situation on the media, which he said "took over this entire conversation before the superintendent had an opportunity to even begin to address this."

Shaw voted to fire Latson last year, but he said he was voting in support of the judge’s recommendation to avoid a costly legal battle for the district. This seems to be the majority thinking. “If we decide tonight that we are not going to accept the hearing officer's final order, we are likely going to have an appeal and end up in court,” Shaw told the Palm Beach Post.

Latson's reassignment does not include his presence on any school campus. Instead he will be placed in the district's assessment department as a 'principal on assignment,' a job title whose meaning I have not discovered. Latson has also apologized to the mother in a statement to the Post, saying:

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 included 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.” I suppose these words were approved as sufficient by the Anti-Defamaiton League, but they will never mollify the enmity held against him by the Karen Brill's of the world.