Associated Press
A Florida high school principal who was fired last year after telling a student’s mother “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened” was rehired after a recommendation by an administrative law judge.
The Palm Beach County school board voted 4-3 on Wednesday to reinstate former Spanish River High School principal William Latson and give him $152,000 in back pay, the Palm Beach Post reported.
“If we rehire Dr. Latson, it is going be a stain on this school district that will never go away,” said Karen Brill, the board’s only Jewish member.
Board member Chuck Shaw, who voted to fire Latson last year, said he was voting to rehire him to avoid a costly court battle, the Post reported. He said it was unfortunate Latson’s comments had damaged the public schools’ image, but he blamed the situation primarily on the news media, which he said “took over this entire conversation before the superintendent had an opportunity to even begin to address this.”
The board made it clear it was reluctant to reinstate Latson, saying the judge’s recommended order gave them little leeway. Refusal to rehire him could lead to a lawsuit and a costly court battle. The district has already spent more than $106,000 defending Latson’s termination in administrative court.
Board members said district officials assured them that Latson would not work on a school campus, but would be placed in the district’s assessment department as a “principal on assignment.”
Superintendent Donald Fennoy had recommended earlier that the board take the action.
The board voted 5-2 last last October to fire Latson on grounds of “ethical misconduct” and “failure to carry out job responsibilities.” The official justification for his termination was failure to return messages from school district officials in the days after his comments made international news.
Latson appealed the termination in state administrative court. A judge sided with him in August, ruling that while his actions merited punishment, they were not serious enough to establish “just cause” for termination.
Latson had initially been reassigned from the Boca Raton school to a district office job because of the outcry over his email to a mother who inquired whether the school’s students study the Holocaust.
3 comments
James Robert Miles
October 9, 2020 at 6:59 am
This is just plain dumb at tax payers expense, of course!!
martin
October 9, 2020 at 7:43 am
stick him in a brick office with no windows and let him stare at a wall.
Madilla
October 9, 2020 at 11:47 am
this is why our kids can’t read, write, or perform basic math skills. Look who we hire to teach, and lead our schools!
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