Third-grade students were allegedly told to reenact elements of the Holocaust

A staff member at a Washington, DC, elementary school is under investigation after allegedly telling third-grade students to reenact incidents from the Holocaust, DC Public Schools (DCPS) said in a statement to CNN.

The instructor was placed on leave Friday pending the investigation, a DCPS official said.

The instructor at Watkins Elementary School allegedly assigned specific roles to students while in library class, casting one student as Adolf Hitler, and directing students to dig mass graves and simulate shooting victims, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the alleged incident. The parent of one of the students told the paper their child said the staff member made an anti-Semitic remark.

The parent also told the Post the instructor asked students not to tell anyone about the reenactment, but they told their homeroom teacher.

The third-grade class met with the school's mental health response team after the incident, the Post reported.

Read more: https://www.albanyherald.com/news/third-grade-students-were-allegedly-told-to-reenact-elements-of-the-holocaust/article_9cb29380-8197-5ff1-9a1a-9b83795ad63f.html