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Frank Navarro, a history teacher at a Bay Area high school, was teaching a lesson to his ninth-grade class Thursday, drawing parallels between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler and fascism.
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But by midday, after a parent expressed concerns about statements Navarro had made in class, he was asked to leave by the school administration.
Navarro, an expert on the Holocaust, having been named a Mandel Fellow for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1997 and having studied at the International Center for the Study of the Holocaust in Jerusalem, said school officials declined to read him the parent’s email and also declined his request to review his lesson plan with him.
“This feels like we’re trying to squash free speech,” he said. “Everything I talk about is factually based. They can go and check it out. It’s not propaganda or bias if it’s based on hard facts.”
“We are interested in getting Frank back in the classroom ... we’re just trying to maintain our due diligence,” Mountain View / Los Altos High School District Superintendent Jeff Harding told Mercury News. “We have a heightened emotional environment right now with the election. It’s always a challenge to maintain a line in a classroom.”
The public high school, at the heart of the Silicon Valley, has a diverse student body and quickly gathered almost 40,000 signatures in a petition to support the beloved history teacher. The original petition had a goal of 1,500, but as word spread, the target is bumped up every day.
Former students and family commented that Navarro was one of the most eye-opening teachers at the school. He taught a course on genocide, which the school district cancelled for not helping students get into college.
The petition garnered enough attention to push the administration to shorten his administrative leave. He is now back in the classroom, but will retire at the end of the year.
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Navarro said he’s concerned for many of his students, “I’ve had Mexican kids come and say, ‘Hey, Mr. Navarro, I might be deported,'” he said. “Is it better to see bigotry and say nothing? That’s what the principal was telling me (during our conversation). In my silence, I would be substantiating the bigotry.”
Navarro’s suspension came the same day that Milpitas High School Principal Phil Morales was also placed on administrative leave for saying, “Fuck Donald Trump,” during a student walkout in protest of Trump.
It also came after an incident where a Los Angeles substitute teacher told a class of sixth-graders their parents would be deported in the wake of Trump’s presidency.
A leaked audio recording captured the exchange between an 11-year-old student and the teacher, who said, "If you were born here, then your parents got to go. Then they will leave you behind, and you will be in foster care."
"I have your phone numbers, your address, your mama's address, your daddy's address. It's all in the system, sweetie," the person in the recording continues.
School officials have said the teacher has since been fired.
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