A teacher in the US has resigned after assigning an 11-year-old pupil a project in which she hailed Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's 'accomplishments,' according to a report. Photo / 123rf
A teacher in the US has resigned after assigning an 11-year-old pupil a project in which she hailed Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's 'accomplishments,' according to a report. Photo / 123rf
A teacher in New Jersey in the US has resigned after assigning an 11-year-old student a project in which she hailed Adolf Hitler for his "accomplishments".
The young female fifth-grader also dressed as Hitler, producing an essay of his accomplishments accompanied with a photo that was displayed in the hallway for weeks.
In it, the girl wrote: "My greatest accomplishment was uniting a great mass of German and Austrian people behind me."
She also wrote that "my belief in antisemitism drove me to kill more than 6 million Jews".
"I was pretty great, wasn't I? I was very popular and many people followed me until I died," it continued.
The New Jersey teacher agreed to quit after education officials blamed "misguided instruction" for the "offensive and inappropriate" project, the Pascack Valley Daily Voice said.
A teacher has resigned after giving a student an assignment on Adolf Hitler. Photo / Facebook
She had been placed on paid leave and will remain so until January 2022.
However, the Tenafly Board of Education voted on Monday to reinstate principal Jennifer Ferrara – who had also been on leave – despite her admitting that she "definitely made mistakes that played a role in what happened," the Pascack Valley Daily Voice said.
"For that, I take full responsibility and I'm eternally sorry," Ferrara said. "This experience has taught me to think more broadly about the consequences of every decision that I make."
Board members initially dismissed the outrage by insisting it was "taken out of context" by parents who "did not understand the assignment".
However, schools Superintendent Shauna DeMarco later conceded that the "curriculum and learning standards were not appropriately implemented," with the girl getting "misguided instruction from the teacher".
"This has had a devastating impact on the student involved and their family, who have been thrown into turmoil through no fault of their own," DeMarco wrote in a report, the paper said.
"It has also been incredibly painful for our Jewish community members in the face of increasing instances of antisemitism around the country."
A local Rabbi said the "wonderful, bright, sweet" 11-year-old girl "didn't know she was doing anything wrong".
He said she followed the directions of the teacher for the project which included dressing up as Hitler.
Sadly, the girl is now fearful of going to school.
"Now she is afraid to go to school as she has heard from her friends that people are saying she did a terrible thing and everyone is angry at her.
"It was the teacher's and the school's responsibility. They put [her] in a terrible situation."
