ENCINITAS, Calif. (SAN DIEGO) — Thursday, parents and students rallied outside of a San Dieguito Union High School District school board meeting.
They're upset no action has been taken against a teacher who said Adolf Hitler had strong leadership qualities.
"How could a teacher who's teaching history, who's responsible for educating a generation of children post a picture of Hitler in a positive light? How can that be allowed?" Jonathan Gale said.
Gale's son attends Carmel Valley Middle School.
His son's 7th-grade teacher displayed a photo of Hitler on a board with other world leaders.
When a student asked why, the teacher reportedly said, "Hitler may have done some bad things, but he also had strong leadership qualities."
"That's frightening and alarming," Gale said.
The school's principal and the school district have since apologized for the photo.
The district said it'll offer anti-bias staff training focusing on antisemitism.
However, parents, including Gale, said that's not enough.
"I think the school is putting out statements in a very reactive way, almost like they're compelled to say something so they're releasing statements in that way," he said.
While the school board plans to discuss the incident during Thursday night's meeting, it will not take action on it.
Parents want the school board to hold another special meeting where members will take action to ensure something like this doesn't happen again.
"The nature of antisemitism is subtle. It's different. It's not as blatant as another kind of -isms like racism or sexism," Gale said. "So the school not addressing that as they would something else that's similar but not as blatant, that raises questions about the school's philosophy on antisemitism."
Gale said he took his son out of the class Thursday.
ABC 10News reached out to the school district regarding parents' concerns. It did not respond to a request for a statement or comment on this story.
Full email sent to parents from Carmel Valley Middle School Principal:
Dear Bobcat Families,
"There are certain topics that we teach in school that have to be taught with extra care, empathy, and particular awareness of the impact of the lived experiences of the individuals in our community. While our teachers and staff at Carmel Valley Middle School strive to provide a quality education to our students and never intend to hurt or offend any student or family, there are occasions where the impact is hurtful and we must reflect, learn, and refine our teaching practices from these occasions. We have recently experienced one of those times that had a hurtful impact, particularly to our Jewish community, and to others, and for this we are sorry. We take these situations seriously, immediately address them, and most importantly, we continue to strive to be better. Contrary to what has been published by the media, please be assured that this was addressed swiftly with corrective action. We are grateful for our ongoing partnership with ADL and are proud to be a No Place for Hate School, which means we will continue to do the work to be better and do better."
Respectfully,
Vicki Kim, Principal
