A school in Southlake, Texas, faces backlash after it was revealed that teachers there were instructed to have books about the Holocaust with opposing viewpoints.
Southlake school under scrutiny
Carroll Independent School District’s Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Gina Peddy is in the middle of a book firestorm after rolling out a directive last week during a training session about what books their teachers can have inside their classroom libraries. According to NBC News, these teachers were told to balance books about the Holocaust that contain an “opposing” view.
Leaked audio
In line with this, comments coming from Peddy during the said training session were secretly recorded by one of the school’s staff, as this has outraged many. In the obtained audio, Peddy can be heard saying that they are in the middle of a political mess and reminded Carroll Independent School District teachers to make sure that a book on the Holocaust has opposing perspectives.
The succeeding remarks from Peddy were already inaudible as one teacher can also be heard saying, “How do you oppose the Holocaust?”
When asked for a comment about what she said, the school district director declined to do so.
Southlake teachers speaking up
However, NBC was able to speak to a couple of concerned Southlake teachers regarding the controversy. Their identities were kept for fear that they might lose their jobs.
According to them, they were shocked upon hearing Peddy’s directive to them. Further, they stated that they felt such was necessary since they believe that no one will listen unless a teacher speaks up.
On the other hand, the Southlake school district stated that they were helping teachers to comply with Texas law, adding that the district has not and will not mandate books be taken out from their bookshelves.
Nonetheless, one of the teachers debunked such a statement from the school district, saying that “it’s a flat-out lie.” When asked as to what is at stake in such directive, one of them replied that in books, a child can see what the world can be and to have it taken away just because of them fearing a few parents getting upset about a word or idea that they’ve to imagine is in a book is unthinkable.
As for the parents, they believe that politics has no place inside public schools.
