Third-graders were allegedly asked to reenact events from the Holocaust. A staff member has now been put on leave.
A staff member at a Washington, D.C. elementary school allegedly asked students to re-enact the Holocaust last week. The incident is now being investigated and that staff member has been placed on leave, according to D.C. Public Schools.
The district "received a report of a classroom of students receiving a lesson that included portraying different perspectives of the Holocaust," last week, a spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News.
"Students should never be tasked with acting out any atrocity, especially genocide and war," the statement read. "Additionally, there were allegations of a staff member using hate speech during the lesson, which is unacceptable and not tolerated at any of our schools."
The district said it was not an approved lesson plan, and that it sincerely apologizes to students and families that were subject to the incident. "We have launched an investigation, and students are being supported by our DCPS Comprehensive Alternative Resolution & Equity Team," the statement reads.
The district put the staff member on leave but did not specify if it was a paid or unpaid.
The parent of one student, who is Jewish, told the Washington Post their child was asked to act like Hitler and pretend to commit suicide at the end of the reenactment.
Another parent of a student who was in the class said her son was told to act like he was on train to a concentration camp, according to Washington Post. He was asked to act as if he were dying in a gas chamber and shooting his peers, said the parent, who asked to remain anonymous.
The parent said the staff member told the students not to tell anyone about the reenactment. But they told their homeroom teacher, the Washington Post reports.
