Bipartisan legislation to mandate that public K-12 schools teach a curriculum on the Jewish Holocaust has cleared the Washington state House of Representatives and will now head to the Senate for consideration.
Under House Bill 2037, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), in partnership with Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity, would develop the curriculum, which would be required rather than strongly encouraged.
If passed, the bill would designate April as International Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month and require public schools to conduct and promote “age-appropriate” educational activities that provide instruction, awareness and understanding of the Holocaust during the month.
“The Holocaust was one of the worst atrocities in human history, yet research shows many of our young people don’t believe it happened,” Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, said in a statement. “That dishonors the memory of those murdered and is terrifying because the only way we ensure that events like the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people and murders of more than six million men, women, and children never happen again to anyone anywhere in the world, is to educate our young people about such atrocities.”