A staff member at Watkins Elementary School in Washington, DC, is under fire for having third graders participate in a heinous and unauthorized lesson plan.
The staff member has been placed on leave as DC Public Schools investigates an upsetting lesson that had students acting out different aspects of the Holocaust in class. The school has sent out a letter to parents explaining the situation and its actions as the investigation continues.
While the school grapples with the situation, parents are speaking out about how this has impacted their children, with one parent even describing their child as being "traumatized."
The letter home to parents at Watkins Elementary School gives a horrifying description of the incident at hand.
"This week, the 3rd grade has been working on self-directed research project to culminate in a classroom presentation before winter break," the letter reads, per Fox 5 DC.
"Unfortunately, during research time in the library today, we received reports that students in the class were asked to re-enact the Holocaust as part of their library time."
"According to the report, the re-enactment included students being asked to portray participants from the Holocaust like Adolf Hitler, digging ditches to serve as mass graves, and simulated shootings," the letter continued.
"It was also alleged that the staff member leading the lesson also made anti-Semitic statements."
The school made a point of condemning what was done and being apologetic to parents.
"I want to acknowledge the gravity of this poor instructional decision, as students should never be tasked to act out or portray any atrocity, especially genocide, war, or murder," principal M. Scott Berkowitz said in the letter.
"In no way is this lesson supported by the school leadership or DCPS curriculum."
Parents of students involved in this activity are now speaking out, and they're completely outraged this happened in a classroom full of 8- and 9-year-olds.
"My husband picked up our child after school and there was a lot of sobbing and crying and distress," one mother, who chose to remain anonymous, told Fox 5 DC.
Another parent shared their experience with The Washington Post.
"Her son had to pretend to be on a train to a concentration camp, then act as if he were dying in a gas chamber. He also had to act as if he were shooting his peers," the Post shared of the parent's account.
"They are traumatized," one parent said after being asked what other parents are saying about the incident.
"One parent said that their child was worried the teacher in question was hiding at their house. Children are having nightmares and generally having a very hard time."
Further alarming is that this staff member has a checkered professional past. They were forced to leave a job after being charged with scamming a New Jersey school district. The staff member allegedly billed $24,000 for tutoring their two homeschooled children, even though the kids were attending a school in another district, according to The New York Times.
