Fifth-graders at Maugham Elementary School in Tenafly, N.J., were tasked to write about the accomplishments of notable people and to dress up as their selected person.
One student
chose Jim Carrey, while others wrote about Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart. Another child picked Adolf Hitler.
“I was pretty great wasn’t I?” the student wrote in pencil, using Hitler’s voice and highlighting his rise to power. “I was very popular and many people followed me until I died. My [belief] in antisemitism drove me to kill more than 6 million Jews.”
That essay hung on school walls among others in April, according to Lori Birk, an Englewood mother who on Sunday posted the image of the essay on her Facebook page.
Parents and community members in Bergen County, outside New York City, have called and written school officials, demanding answers and accountability. In response, Tenafly Public Schools began an investigation Friday evening