Teacher who compared Trump's rise to Hitler is suspended from high school to keep students 'emotionally safe'

  • Frank Navarro, a scholar of the Holocaust, is said to have taught his world studies class about similarities between Trump and Hitler's rise to power
  • Concerned parents emailed Mountain View High School principal 
  • Principal Dave Grissom suspended him to keep school 'emotionally safe'
  • Navarro said he has a duty as history teacher to keep students informed 
  • Change.org petition has more than 7,600 signatures to end suspension 

By Kalhan Rosenblatt For Dailymail.com

Published: 14:44 EST, 13 November 2016 | Updated: 19:18 EST, 13 November 2016

A California teacher has been suspended with pay from the school he has worked at for 40 years for comparing Donald Trump's rise to power to Adolf Hitler's.

Frank Navarro, a scholar of the Holocaust, who has worked for decades at Mountain View High School said he taught his world studies class the similarities between Hitler's rise to power and Trump's campaign. 

But after concerned parents began contacting the school, principal Dave Grissom and superintendent Jeff Harding made the decision to suspend Navarro. 

Navarro said the parent claims he called Trump and Hitler one and the same, but he says that's not what happened.  

'This parent said that I had said Donald Trump was Hitler, but I would never say that. That’s sloppy historical thinking,' Navarro told SF Gate.

Frank Navarro (pictured), a scholar of the Holocaust, has been suspended with pay from the school he has worked at for 40 years for comparing Donald Trump's rise to power to Adolf Hitler's

He says he did make comparisons about how the two rose to prominence and lead their respective nations, including rhetoric about deporting foreigners and restoring greatness to the country. 

'I think it makes sense. It’s factual, it’s evidence-based. It reminds students that history is real,' Navarro said.

But the school officials said given the climate following the election, the lesson was inappropriate.  

'Regardless of their political affiliation, many of our students show signs of emotional stress,' Grissom told parents in a letter. 

He said the school has an obligation to be an 'emotionally safe environment' for students. 

But, Grissom also said, the school must protect teachers and staff when unsubstantiated claims are made against them.  

Grissom told SF Gate the suspension is a 'time out' for Navarro. 

Navarro said it is his duty as a history teacher to ensure students are aware of bigotry and to point it out, according to a Change.org petition. 

Mountain View High School (pictured) principal Dave Grissom and superintendent Jeff Harding made the decision to suspend Navarro but there has since been backlash 

'I feel strongly about this: to stand quiet in the face of bigotry and to turn your eyes away from it is to back up the bigotry, and that’s not what I, or any history teacher, should be doing in our work,' Navarro said.  

Officials said they would wrap up an investigation into the claims soon.  

After The Oracle, the student newspaper, wrote about the suspension, outraged parents and students began saying Navarro should not have been suspended.

'Emails started flowing in to the principal late that night,' Navarro told the paper. 

The Change.org petition, which seeks to have an apology made to Navarro and his suspension lifted, received more than 7,600 signatures as of Sunday afternoon.

Navarro's daughter posted on the petition, furious about the situation her father had been placed in. 

'What Mountain View High School has done to my father is wrong. Discussing the connection between Trump and Hitler is important and relevant to history and the painful situation we are in now in this country,' she wrote. 

She added that her father was set to retire in June and that the school will be losing a beloved teacher.  

 

 

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