A French Jewish history teacher has been suspended from her position in a provincial school system on charges of not having taught about World War II with sufficient “neutrality.”
Catherine Pederzoli, 58, was accused of spending too much time on preparing her students for annual school trips to Poland and the Czech Republic to visit sites like the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
Pederzoli, who had organized the annual trips for the past 15 years without incident, was accused by the school board of “brainwashing” her students, and spending too much time on the Holocaust. The report by the school board, viewed by the AFPnews agency, charged Pederzoli of “lacking distance, neutrality and secularism.”
Her lawyer, Christine Tadic, responded that “If this teacher had been a Christian, no one would have accused her of brainwashing. Isn't it the case that this teacher's fault is to have been Jewish?”
The suspension came in the wake of a management change in 2007, and a protest staged by some of the teacher's students in December 2009 during a visit to the Henri-Loritz High School by Education Minister Luc Chatel. The students were protesting a reduction in the number of places on Holocaust field trips.
The petition seeking a court order to annul the suspension was filed by Tadic last Tuesday. Judges are expected to hand down a ruling in 10 days.