ENCINITAS — A Carmel Valley Middle School teacher’s portrayal of a photo of Adolf Hitler in the classroom and statement to a student that Hitler had “leadership qualities” has caused outrage and calls for action in the San Dieguito Union High School District.
Carmel Valley parent Dr. Roy David said he learned from his 12-year-old son that his seventh-grade teacher had placed a photo of Hitler on a classroom presentation board alongside historical figures such as Martin Luther King J., Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill and that it had been up since the beginning of the school year.
Roy said he reached out to the teacher to ask about the lesson and requested that the image be taken down but did not receive a response. He also claimed that when his son told the teacher that she was trivializing the Holocaust, she responded by saying, “Hitler may have done some bad things, but he had leadership qualities.”
“Any history teacher who thinks the most teachable aspect of Hitler is that he had strong leadership abilities is not fit to teach and should be fired,” Roy said at the district’s Thursday board meeting.
Roy eventually went to local news outlets with his story, claiming that the school’s principal had also been slow to take action.
The resounding outcry led to emails and calls from parents, community members, organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, and national Jewish leaders like Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who called on district staff and students to visit the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
Carmel Valley principal Vicki Kim and Interim Superintendent Tina Douglas apologized to the district community early in October.
“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 the impact is hurtful, and we must reflect, learn, and refine our teaching practices from these occasions,” Kim said in an Oct. 3 message.
According to Douglas, district leadership has since engaged in listening sessions with local Jewish leaders at Congregation Beth Israel and the Jewish Federation of San Diego. District staff will undergo anti-bias training with a specific focus on antisemitism.
Dozens of residents attended the district board’s Thursday meeting to share their disappointment about Hitler being presented in this way to students and to demand action from the district.
Torrey Pines High School junior Noa Clarstonfeld described at the board meeting their own experiences with antisemitism, explaining how many students and adults remain ignorant about the impacts of the Holocaust.
“To me and many, this [the Holocaust] is not something that happened long ago,” Clarestonfeld said. “This is something that we lost loved ones to that would still be alive today, and we are seeing echoes of it through the offhanded and ignorant comments, the intentionally antisemitic references and simply the lack of understanding to this day.”
District leaders have not clarified whether the teacher at the center of the controversy, Tabitha Barry, has been dismissed but said the matter was addressed according to district policies.
“I want to make sure that everyone knows that the district does take this matter seriously. We have addressed it according to our policies in the district. Because it is a personnel issue, we cannot say more,” Douglas said.
Next steps, transparency
Like Roy, many other community members and parents have demanded more information about the lesson’s specific nature, including the image of Hitler in that seventh-grade classroom.
The district’s educational services department has looked into the lesson, unit and teaching methodologies to ensure they align with state standards. However, with the support of district trustees Michael Allman and Maureen “Mo” Muir, several parents are pushing to have more clarity regarding what goes on in the classroom.
This became a point of some contention at Thursday’s meeting, as Allman and Muir pushed for the board to establish a new committee of parents, under the oversight of Associate Superintendent of Educational Services Bryan Marcus, to review the curriculum and investigate exactly what was involved in the Carmel Valley school lesson.
“Here’s an opportunity for parents to have a real say in what happens. We owe it to the community to do that,” Allman said. “If everyone in the community knew Hitler’s picture was on the wall, it probably wouldn’t have happened.”
Other district officials were concerned that forming a committee would be premature. Douglas said she would like to gather more feedback from the community, students and Jewish leaders via one or more town-hall-style listening sessions before deciding the terms for a certain committee.
“It sounds like this is a very nuanced committee, and I was thinking something a little larger than a committee,” Douglas told Allman. “We’re looking at training, we’re looking at meeting with our school site principals, and my thought process is, we need to have some larger conversations and listening and learning sessions across the district to see what we need to hear from the community.”
Regarding the recommendation that more community members have a say about classroom curriculum, trustees Julie Bronstein and Katrina Young also noted that parents could already find information through the district and school websites about the subject matter in specific courses and classes.
“I think we get into dangerous territory when anyone can look at that syllabus. What’s really important is the students and the parents and teachers working in collaboration,” Young said. “There are state standards that do direct us to what we are supposed to teach.”
Marcus noted that the district already has a parent curricular advisory committee, where parent representatives from each school and district officials can understand how new textbooks are selected, and new materials are developed.
“We have to stop as a district doing reactionary work. It is not helping us get anywhere,” Marcus said. “I think the point of this is, proactively, how do we get in front of this, so we are training, educating, growing? That is the work that needs to get done is the proactive work.”
The discussion concluded with Allman and Bronstein agreeing to meet with Marcus in the coming weeks to discuss potential next steps while the district plans additional opportunities to gather more feedback.
