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Texas School Official Tell Teachers to Balance Holocaust Books with ‘Opposing’ Narratives

A school administrator in Texas told teachers in a training session to provide students with “other perspectives” on “widely debated” subjects like the Holocaust.

Teachers at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, were shocked last week when a top district official asked them to offer students “opposing” viewpoints if they kept books about the Holocaust in their classrooms. An Oct. 8 audio recording obtained by NBC News captured Gina Peddy trying to explain a new Texas education law during a teachers’ training session on classroom library guidelines. The law, House Bill 3979, requires teachers to present “both sides” when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial issues.” Peddy said, “Make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

NBC News spoke to six Carroll educators, including four who were in the room when Peddy made her remarks. They said they were worried about inconsistent, confusing messaging issued by district officials, and fear they won’t be backed up by the board if an issue arises. Days before the training, after a parent complained, the school board voted 3-2 to reprimand a teacher for having a copy of This Book Is Anti-Racist in her classroom. “Teachers are literally afraid that we’re going to be punished for having books in our classes,” one elementary school teacher said. “There are no children’s books that show the ‘opposing perspective’ of the Holocaust or the ‘opposing perspective’ of slavery. Are we supposed to get rid of all of the books on those subjects?”