Texas

School Leader in Texas Tells Teachers to Balance Holocaust Books With ‘Opposing' Views

Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon

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A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries.

The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.

The district's superintedent, Lane Ledbetter, issued a statement Thursday evening apologizing for the incident. "The comments made were in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history," she said. "Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust."

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

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