NEW: A school administrator in Southlake, Texas, advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also have a book with an "opposing" perspective.
Listen to the audio recording obtained by @NBCNews: nbcnews.to/2YNVugH
Carroll Independent School District exec director of curriculum Gina Peddy: "Make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing — that has other perspectives”
Teacher: “How do you oppose the Holocaust?”
Peddy: “Believe me, that’s come up”
Peddy 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 voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.
Six Carroll teachers spoke to @NBCNews about the new book guidelines.
“Teachers are literally afraid that we’re going to be punished for having books in our classes,” an elementary school teacher said.
nbcnews.to/2YNVugH
The debate in Southlake over which books should be allowed in schools is part of a broader national movement led by parents opposed to lessons on racism, history and LGBTQ issues that some conservatives have falsely branded as critical race theory.
Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association, says there’s nothing in the new Texas law explicitly dealing with classroom libraries.
Three other Texas education policy experts agreed.
“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” says Robison, spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association.
“That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”
A group of Southlake parents has been fighting for more than a year to block new diversity and inclusion programs at Carroll, one of the top-ranked school districts in Texas.
nbcnews.to/3vc4IyV
For more on this story, watch @NBCNightlyNews tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.
nbcnews.to/2YNVugH
@NBCNightlyNews Listen to the Southlake podcast: nbcnews.com/southlake-podc…
WATCH: Southlake teachers were told to balance Holocaust books with an "opposing" view.
@ahylton26 reports for @NBCNightlyNews. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/s…
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