Members of D.C. Public Schools are investigating an incident after elementary students were allegedly asked to reenact the Holocaust, including playing Adolf Hitler and choking in gas chambers.
The Watkins Elementary School librarian identified as Kimberlynn Jurkowski is accused of is assigning the lesson. The school librarian is also accused of telling them that the Holocaust happened because Jews ruined Christmas.
A school librarian in Washington DC made 3rd graders re-enact the Holocaust. She also told them that the Holocaust happened because Jews ruined Christmas.
I really don’t know what to say. I’m speechless.
— 🦅 Anis Jerbi 🦅 (@ArtistAJ17) December 21, 2021
The staff member has been placed on leave pending the lesson plan investigation. According to The New York Times, the librarian has had previous issues with another institution– she was forced to leave a prior job in New Jersey after a tutoring scam where she was convicted in 2013 of defrauding a school district out of $24,000.
“Last week, we received a report of a classroom of students receiving a lesson that included portraying different perspectives of the Holocaust. Students should never be tasked with acting out any atrocity, especially genocide and war,” D.C. Public Schools said in a statement. “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.
“This was not an approved lesson plan, and we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident,” D.C. Public Schools said.
The principal of Watkins Elementary School sent home telling parents that students were “asked to portray participants from the Holocaust like Adolf Hitler, digging ditches to serve as mass graves, and simulated shootings.”
Does DCPS do background checks on its staff? Cuz this seems like an obvious red flag. (NYT named librarian behind Holocaust reenactment.) https://t.co/06KCH4OV1T pic.twitter.com/6RdeBID7C1
— Jack Gillum (@jackgillum) December 20, 2021
It is now being investigated how the librarian gained employment despite her background.
“We do a thorough background check on all of our employees when they’re hired, and we’re doing an investigation into the hiring process, specifically, to this staff member,” D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee said.
Parents are enraged, sharing their children are having a hard time processing the lesson, and the child instructed to portray Hitler is “not doing well at all.”
“My husband picked up our child after school, and there was a lot of sobbing and crying and distress,” one mother said.
“They are traumatized. One parent said that their child was worried the teacher in question was hiding at their house,” an anonymous mother told Fox5 DC. “Children are having nightmares and generally having a very hard time.”
Watkins Elementary is offering to counsel the students affected by the traumatizing lesson.
