Students and parents at Lenape Middle School in the Central Bucks School
District protest against policy 321.

“The Holocaust is not about elevating
one religion or another. It’s a histori-
cal incident,” said Katie Lowe, program
and collections director at the Elkins
Park-based Holocaust Awareness
Museum and Education Center.

Though only in her role for less than a
year, Lowe has noticed similar rhetoric as
policy 321 being used to argue against
thorough Holocaust education.

“More schools than I expected had
a lot of hoops that they had to jump
through in order to approve Holocaust
programming,” she said. "And it was
really clear, based on the conversations
we were having by the representatives
from those schools, that the concern was
coming from parents who were worried
about the schools taking non-neutral
stances, or appearing to promote one
religion over another.”
Like concerned parents, Lowe believes
that the argument for eliminating politics
or “advocacy activities” in the classroom
is not helpful in combating hate.

“What’s especially concerning is the
implication that teaching the Holocaust
is a political act. Because it’s not political
to teach historical facts,” she said. “And
it’s not political to encourage and foster
empathy in our students.”
Lowe recommended that individu-
als interested in combating Holocaust
censorship take time to educate
themselves. HAMEC Education Director
Leah Dukes suggested visiting museums
and libraries to learn more, or arranging
for a Holocaust survivor to visit a school
through HAMEC.

In the meantime, Jewish parents and
students in Central Bucks, according
to Casey, will continue to protest and
attend school board meetings, as well as
vote in the November elections to oust
right-wing school board members.

“Our primary focus has to be to change
the school board so that we don’t keep
having policies like 321, and we don’t
keep having a culture that’s so harmful
to our kids,” Casey said. ■
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