California School Teacher Suspended After He Compares Donald Trump To Hitler
Controversy has erupted after a history teacher from California was placed on leave after he reportedly compared Republican President-elect Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. According to The Mercury News, the teacher, later identified as Frank Navarro is an experienced teacher who has taught students at Mountain View High School for over 40 years. According to the report, the school principal and the district superintendent told Navarro to leave mid-class on Thursday, after the parents of one of their students complained that he had compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler in one of his recent world studies class.
According to reports, the parents whose identity have not been revealed, sent an email to school officials expressing concern over the statements made by Frank during one of his classes. Following the incident, Mountain View/Los Altos High School District Superintendent Jeff Harding also confirmed the development. He, however, did not go into details about the complaint made by the parents.
Thank you for speaking truth #FrankNavarro! History Teacher Removed From Classroom For Comparing #Trump To #Hitler https://t.co/Hfk0YufHqK
— yUsonian (@yUsonian) November 13, 2016
Meanwhile, in a report that appeared on Mountain View High’s independent student newspaper The Oracle, some students had reportedly alleged that Navarro’s lessons were “one-sided” and that several things that Navarro had said about Trump would be offensive to Trump supporters. There were counter opinions too. A group of students even started a Change.org petition asking for the suspension to be revoked.
Mountain View High School: Reverse Frank Navarro's Administrative Leave Now https://t.co/YoepTAyUyG
— Indybay (@Indybay) November 13, 2016
A report by the San Francisco Chronicle described Navarro as an expert on the holocaust. In the report, Navarro claimed that school authorities did not tell him what the contents of the email, and what the demands made by the parents were. Authorities also declined his request to review the lesson plan with him, In a brief interview with the newspaper, he expressed his concerns and termed the move an attempt to stifle free speech.
“This parent said that I had said Donald Trump was Hitler, but I would never say that. That’s sloppy historical thinking.”
He further added;
“This feels like we’re trying to squash free speech. Everything I talk about is factually based. They can go and check it out. It’s not propaganda or bias if it’s based on hard facts.”
Navarro revealed that school officials told him that his was a temporary suspension and that he could come back to school on Wednesday. Later, he revealed that he could be back to work earlier, on Monday. When asked about the incident, Harding revealed that the suspension was handed over in order to “maintain due diligence.”
“We are interested in getting Frank back in the classroom…we’re just trying to maintain our due diligence. We have a heightened emotional environment right now with the election. It’s always a challenge to maintain a line in a classroom.”
According to reports, the 65-year-old Navarro was named a Mandel Fellow for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1997. He was also a student at the International Center for the Study of the Holocaust in Jerusalem. He continues to maintain that Hitler’s rise to power and his persecution of Jews has in his words “remarkable parallels” to Trump’s comments on Latinos, Blacks, and Muslims.
The news of the history teacher’s suspension comes at a time when protest marches continue to be held across the country in reaction to Trump’s unprecedented victory against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Elections. In the San Francisco Bay Area too, there have been several protests with hundreds of students staging walkouts. Incidentally, Navarro was handed over the temporary suspension on the same day a principal from another school – Milpitas High School was placed on administrative leave after he used a profane word against Trump. The principal, Phil Morales later admitted to having used profanity but continues to maintain that his opinions about Trump remain unchanged.
[Featured Image by Mary Altaffer/AP Images]
