Mountain View High School: Reverse Frank Navarro's Administrative Leave Now

Petition by Annie Ashmore. Mountain View, CA

According to the Mountain View High School Oracle newspaper, MVHS principal David Grissom and other school administrators made the decision to put history teacher Frank Navarro on administrative leave. The leave was prompted by Navarro's alleged comments in class that made connections between Donald Trump and Hitler. Whether or not he said this, it is dangerous and disgusting that the administration has decided to punish him for drawing parallels between two similarly dangerous moments in history.

In Mr. Navarro's words, “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.”

Trump has openly built his platform on bigotry and blatant fascism. The KKK and other hate groups have endorsed him, and the number of hate crimes have sharply increased since the start of his campaign. To silence Trump's critics is to reward indifference, ignorance, and intolerance. We demand that the MVHS administration revoke Mr. Navarro's leave and publicly apologize for attempting to intimidate a respected educator. We will not stand for censorship and respectability politics.

This petition will be delivered to:
Principal, Mountain View High School
David Grissom

Sign the petition:
https://www.change.org/p/david-grissom-principal-david-grissom-reverse-mr-navarro-s-administrative-leave-now

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History teacher suspended for lesson showing ‘remarkable parallels’ between rise of Trump and Hitler

A Bay Area history teacher was suspended from teaching on Thursday over a lesson in which he examined parallels between the rise of Trump and German fascist dictator Adolf Hitler.

The Monterey Herald said that Mountain View High School placed teacher Frank Navarro on paid leave after a parent complained in an email about the lesson and statements that Navarro made in class.

Navarro — a 40-year classroom veteran and expert in Holocaust studies — said, “This feels like we’re trying to squash free speech. Everything I talk about is factually based. They can go and check it out. It’s not propaganda or bias if it’s based on hard facts.”

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