Remember the South Florida principal who was fired last year for denying the Holocaust happened?
Well, he could be getting his job back soon.
Judge Robert Cohen ruled Thursday that William Latson should not have been terminated from his position at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton.
Instead, Cohen says the Palm Beach County School District should have reprimanded Latson, or reassigned him to another post within the district.
He wrote that district officials “failed to prove that (Latson) engaged in misconduct in office, incompetence, or gross insubordination by a preponderance of the evidence. No just cause for his suspension or termination exists, but a reprimand and reassignment are warranted.”
“Any competent evidence of Anti-Semitism, either direct or indirect, on Dr. Latson’s part, is sorely lacking,” Cohen continued.
A Florida high school principal refused to call the Holocaust "a factual, historical event."
The Palm Beach County school district "reassigned" William Latson to a new job and denounced his statement as offensive.
The school is in Boca Raton, home to a large Jewish population.
— AJ+ (@ajplus) July 9, 2019
Latson was fired last year after spending eight years at Spanish River, for what Superintendent Donald Fennoy called “ethical misconduct” in the wake of the principal’s Holocaust comments.
In April of 2018, Latson told the parent looking into the school that he was unable to say definitively that the Holocaust had occurred, due to his position in the district.
That created a firestorm of controversy among parents and the public, and the former principal suddenly went silent and out of sight.
He was reassigned to another job in the summer of 2019, before being fired last October.
The judge’s decision also recommends that Latson receive back pay from the time he was terminated.
Before he can return to campus though, the School Board must vote on the reinstatement.