Superintendent: Teacher's statement 'incomplete, taken out of context'

WHITESVILLE — A photo from the Whitesville Central School yearbook caused a firestorm on social media, with a teacher profile espousing praise of Adolf Hitler.



History teacher Jeffrey Acor, who recently completed his first year with the district, was featured in a “New Guy On The Block” segment profiling Whitesville teachers. The yearbook quoted Acor as listing his favorite person in history as Adolf Hitler, “who did many great things for Germany and their youth before the infamous Holocaust. Adolf was outed and faced hardships early in life which a lot of people can relate to. Adolf is arguably the greatest public speaker in the history of the world. Adolf made many great strides to make Germany a world power.”



The yearbooks were collected when the passage was widely discovered. In a statement on the school website, District Superintendent Laurie Sanders noted Acor’s statement “was incomplete, resulting in the description of a historical figure being mistakenly taken out of context.”



Sanders elaborated on the matter to The Spectator.



“It was incomplete. The interview was done and then this teacher had no idea it was going to be an actual article written as is,” Sanders said. “He didn’t have a chance to see it before it was published.”



Sanders declined to comment on the details of the interview, such as whether it was written or verbal and the extent of the conversation, citing protection of the students involved in the process.



The superintendent acknowledged that the incendiary subject matter was cause for concern in the immediate aftermath of the profile coming to light, but she is comfortable with Acor’s status in the district moving forward.



“It was a concern in the beginning, until we investigated further and talked to the teacher and students,” Sanders said.



As for how the offending passage made it to print, Sanders acknowledged there was a transition of yearbook advisors during the school year. New procedures will be put in place moving forward to ensure greater oversight of the finished product.



“There was a little bit of a gap, but the buck always stops with me. I’m not going to blame any one person. There were several errors that took place,” Sanders said. “We are putting procedures in place to make sure nothing like this happens again.”



New yearbooks will be printed and distributed to students. Sanders said that timeline is still to be determined.



The superintendent’s statement, in full:



“It has been brought to my attention there may be some concerns and misunderstandings stemming from the collection of the yearbooks. I thought it important to provide information from the District regarding this matter.



“Please know, in the production of the yearbook, we try to give students the freedom and creative license to create and determine content. That said, after the yearbooks were distributed several errors and oversights were found, including our discovery that a statement from one of our new teachers was incomplete, resulting in the description of a historical figure being mistakenly taken out of context. Accordingly, we wanted to give the Yearbook Committee an opportunity to correct the errors and oversights, and to include a more accurate and complete quote from the teacher.



“We would like to thank everyone for their cooperation and understanding as we make corrections and reprint the yearbooks. We will be redistributing improved versions in the near future.



“Please feel free to reach out to me with any further questions or concerns. Otherwise, while we look forward to the 2019-20 school year, we wish everyone a happy and safe summer.”