Judge: Principal should not be fired for comments

The former Boca Raton principal who generated a national uproar for his comments about the Holocaust should not have been fired, a judge ruled Thursday.

The Palm Beach County School District should have given William Latson, former principal of Spanish River High, a reprimand or reassigned him to another job, according to the ruling by Judge Robert S. Cohen.

The school district “failed to prove that (Latson) engaged in misconduct in office, incompetence, or gross insubordination by a preponderance of the evidence. No just cause for his suspension or termination exists, but a reprimand and reassignment are warranted,” the judge wrote.

“Any competent evidence of Anti-Semitism, either direct or indirect, on Dr. Latson’s part, is sorely lacking,” Cohen wrote. The judge said “the whole mess would have been avoided” if Latson had chosen his words more carefully in his emails to the parent and in a farewell letter to his staff.

Latson declined through a spokesman to comment on Thursday night. A school district spokeswoman said Thursday the district was examining the judge’s decision and did not have an immediate comment.

In April 2018, Latson told the parent, who was seeking information about Spanish River’s Holocaust curriculum, that he had to remain “politically neutral” — sensitive not only to advocates of Holocaust education but to those who deny the annihilation of 6 million Jews during World War II.

In his email conversations with the parent, Latson detailed his efforts to implement the school’s Holocaust curriculum, a state mandate since 1994, but wrote that not every family had been amenable to the lessons.

“I work to expose students to certain things but not all parents want their students exposed so they will not be and I can’t force that issue,” Latson wrote.

“I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee,” Latson wrote to the parent, whose name is redacted from the emails released by the district.

The School Board fired Latson, who had led Spanish River since 2011, last year for being unavailable after the comments he made infuriated Spanish River parents and alumni, as well as Holocaust survivors and people working to combat antiSemitism.

Superintendent Donald Fennoy told the board Latson had committed ethical misconduct by being unreachable when “all hell broke loose” after his comments to the parent became public.

Spanish River parents and alumni condemned what they called the insensitivity of Latson’s comments, considering the large population of Holocaust survivors and their descendants in Boca Raton and South Florida. More than 10,000 survivors are estimated to live in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, the second largest concentration in the United States after New York.

The school district had known about Latson’s comments for more than a year, but Latson’s supervisors were working with him on improving Holocaust education at the school. He even traveled to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2019 to learn more about the tragedy.

Latson’s lawyer said the board was punishing Latson for a “poorly worded email” and said there were multiple levels of culpability.

After the uproar, the school district reassigned Latson to an unspecified position at home in July 2019. He kept his salary of $106,659 until he was fired that October.

Latson appealed the firing to a state administrative law judge. The judge recommended Latson get paid the wages he lost since he was fired and that the school district give him a job worthy of his talents.

Since the judge decided in his favor, the School Board will have to vote again on his reinstatement. The board had voted 5-2 in favor of his termination.

Latson