“At a tense school board meeting Monday night in Southlake, Texas, a former student gave painful testimony about antisemitic bullying that he said he endured in the Carroll Independent School District. Teachers grew emotional as they described feeling unsupported and under attack. And many parents defended a district administrator who told teachers to offer students books showing ‘opposing’ perspectives on the Holocaust, saying she was trying to follow a problematic new state law, while also condemning her interpretation of that law. The administrator’s comment, secretly recorded by a Carroll staff member during a training session this month and shared with NBC News, sparked international outrage and put a spotlight on a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing ‘widely debated and currently controversial’ issues. The administrator, Gina Peddy, the school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, has not replied to messages requesting comment. Monday’s school board meeting was the first time Southlake residents had a public forum to raise concerns about Peddy’s comment.”

“Jake Berman, a Jewish former student, told board members that the bullying he endured in the district two decades ago was so severe that he contemplated suicide. His parents eventually pulled him out of the school system. ‘I received everything from jokes about my nose to gas chambers, all while studying for my bar mitzvah,’ said Berman, adding that he believed Peddy’s comment exposed the problem with new laws that limit how teachers talk about racism and other controversial subjects. ‘The facts are that there are not two sides of the Holocaust.’ Peddy’s comment came during a teacher training session two weeks ago that was focused on which books teachers can keep in their classroom libraries. The district, to comply with the new Texas law, known as Senate Bill 3, had sent teachers a rubric asking them to grade books based on whether they provide multiple perspectives and to set aside any that present singular, dominant narratives ‘in such a way that it… may be considered offensive'” – NBC News.