‘TERRIBLE EVENT’

Texas School District Backtracks: There Are ‘Not Two Sides’ to Holocaust

The school district had told teachers in a meeting last week to include books with “opposing” views with “other perspectives” when teaching the Holocaust.

A Texas school district attempted to walk back a scandal late Thursday after teachers were told in a meeting to present “both sides” of the Holocaust. “During the conversations with teachers during last week’s meeting, the comments made were in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history,” Carroll Superintendent Lane Ledbetter wrote on Facebook. “Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust.” The meeting, led by the Southlake, Texas, district’s head of curriculum, had urged teachers to conform with Texas House Bill 3979, which requires teachers to balance out “widely debated and currently controversial issues” with a both-sides approach.

“As we continue to work through implementation of HB3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts,” Ledbetter wrote. “As a district we will work to add clarity to our expectations for teachers and once again apologize for any hurt or confusion this has caused.”