Teacher Arrested After Holocaust Lesson Goes Awry
A South Carolina teacher has been arrested on charges of assault and battery after trying to make a point during a lesson on the Holocaust.
Middle school teacher Patricia Mulholland, a veteran 7th grade social studies teacher at Bluffton Middle School, is accused of dragging a student out of his seat by his collar and then pushing him under a table while shouting “this is what the Nazis to do Jews.” The incident occurred last week.
The teacher said she was attempting to supplement a previous lesson on the Holocaust, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. Police reportedly have copies of videos made by some students on their cell phones of the teacher acting strange before the incident, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Mulholland was placed on administrative leave with pay on April 26. An internal review by the school district was also launched. Mulholland has been teaching in the district for 23 years.
It has not been reported whether or not the student is Jewish.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
