BY TIANA GOEGEBUER

Rialto – An 8th Grade assignment has become the source of endless criticism for the Rialto Unified School District (RUSD).

The district said that the assignment was meant to satisfy the newly implemented Common Core Standards for Critical Thinking. The project was developed by a group of the district’s teachers and their educational services division, asking students in an 18-page assignment to research and write an argumentative essay about whether the Holocaust occurred, or if it was “merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.” Students were then asked to interpret three sources, one of which vividly described the Holocaust and “The Diary of Anne Frank” as a hoax.

This assignment prompted a serious and widespread outcry from the community, as well as groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Oyuky Barragan, a middle school student, said that she completed the assignment in defense of the history of the Holocaust, but was seriously offended by it. She went on to say that the assignment was a bad idea, and that the district needed to apologize for the ideas they planted in the minds of the children.

The sudden criticism quickly caught the attention of the Rialto Unified School District, and an emergency school board meeting was called. There was a heavy police presence at the meeting, due to the fact that board members and school staff reportedly received death threats. Officials apologized for what they said what a misguided attempt to push nearly 2,000 students to think critically. Superintendant, Mohammad Z. Islam, said that he accepted full responsibility for the incident, and that he was deeply sorry. Syeda Jafri, an RUSD spokeswoman, said that Islam was unaware of the assignment’s topic until school officials received an email about it. Joanne Gilbert, the Board President, said that the project turned into something horribly inappropriate due to a lack of internal checks and balances. The district quickly pulled the assignment and has promised revisions.

While speaking to school officials at the meeting, Rabi Abraham Cooper, the Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said that he hoped no one in the district still believes the assignment served to develop critical thinking. He suggested that the instructors be re-educated about the Holocaust, and that there would be mandatory annual visits to the museum. He offered to work with the district to develop detailed learning plans for the future.