The Palm Beach County School Board in Florida might be bringing back the principal who was fired in October 2019 for saying he had to be neutral on the Holocaust.
In July, the Palm Beach Post revealed an email exchange between then-Spanish River Community High School Principal William Latson and a student’s mother in which Latson said, “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 also said that “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened.” He was subsequently suspended for four months and then fired. The school board said at the time that Latson was fired because he didn’t respond to messages from his supervisors after his comments went viral.
However, Judge Robert Cohen of the Division of Administrative Hearings in Tallahasee determined in August that the Palm Beach County School Board didn’t have the proper grounds to fire Latson. Cohen acknowledged that while Latson chose his words poorly in the 2018 email exchange and should have kept in better contact with his supervisors, his conduct didn’t amount to gross insubordination, therefore he should have been disciplined or reassigned instead of fired.
The Palm Beach County School Board was set to meet on Oct. 7 to determine if Latson should be brought back to the school. Palm Beach County School Superintendent Donald Fennoy already has recommended that the school board reinstate Latson and pay him $152,000 in wages that were withheld from him during his four-month suspension.
Former New York Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who heads the Americans Against Anti-Semitism watchdog group, urged people on Twitter to reach out to Spanish River High School and the Palm Beach County School Board to not reinstate Latson.
“Antisemitism as it is is so tolerated and accepted that it’s an even bigger slap in the face when corrective action has been taken only to reverse it down the line when everyone’s eyes are off the ball!” Hikind tweeted.
2/ Antisemitism as it is is so tolerated and accepted that it’s an even bigger slap in the face when corrective action has been taken only to reverse it down the line when everyone’s eyes are off the ball!
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) October 6, 2020
Latson claimed in 2019 that his remarks to the student’s mother were “not accurately relayed to the newspaper.” He added that “it is unfortunate that someone can make a false statement and do so anonymously and it holds credibility, but that is the world we live in.”
