A high school principal in Florida was reassigned Monday after he refused to say that the Holocaust was a “factual, historical event.”

“It is out of an abundance of concern and respect for the students and staff of Spanish River Community High School that School District Administration has decided to reassign Principal William Latson effective immediately,” said the School District of Palm Beach County in a statement. “His leadership has become a major distraction for the school community. It is, therefore, in the best interest of students and the larger school community to reassign Mr. Latson to a District position.”

The Boca Raton educator had been emailing with a mother back in April 2018 when he made his controversial comments about the Holocaust, which left millions of people dead in the 1940s.

The woman had asked why there weren’t any lessons being taught about the genocide.

“Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened,” Latson said, according to email records obtained by The Palm Beach Post. “And you have your thoughts, but we are a public school and not all of our parents have the same beliefs.”

Latson claimed that as a “district employee” he had “the role to be politically neutral but support all groups in the school.”

“I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so,” he told the parent.

The Palm Beach Post published Laton’s comments over the weekend and school district officials responded Monday with their statement.

“Mr. Latson made a grave error in judgment in the verbiage,” the district said. “In addition to being offensive, the principal’s statement is not supported by either the School District Administration or the School Board.”

Latson was said to have been “counseled about the choices he made in responding to

a parent in email messages” and was “instructed to further expand the Holocaust curriculum at Spanish River.” He also spent “several days” at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington “to increase his personal knowledge.”

“I regret that the verbiage that I used when responding to an email message from a parent, one year ago, did not accurately reflect my professional and personal commitment to educating all students about the atrocities of the Holocaust,” Latson wrote in a statement to the Palm Beach Post. “It is critical that, as a society, we hold dear the memory of the victims and hold fast to our commitment to counter anti-Semitism.”