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December 21,2021

Anna Murray 

According to DC Public Schools (DCPS), a staff member at a Washington, DC, elementary school is being investigated after allegedly advising third-grade students to reenact Holocaust events during a library session on December 17. Students should never enact any atrocity, especially genocide or war. In the email to the parents on December 17 evening about the incidence of hate and bias, Watkins Principal MScott Berkowitz mentioned there were also allegations of a staff member using hate speech during the session, which is improper and not acceptable at the school.

The incident occurred at Watkins Elementary School's Capitol Hill campus, where librarian Kimberlynn Jurkowski, who is described as the library media specialist, forced third-graders to imitate Holocaust atrocities.

The Holocaust was a genocide committed against European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies slaughtered at least six million Jews in German-occupied Europe, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the continent's Jewish population.

Jurkowski was fired as a school librarian in 2013 after being convicted of fraud in a $24,000 tutoring scam, and her New Jersey teaching license was suspended for three years as a result of the conviction in 2017. She was also charged with animal cruelty in 2019 after allegedly abandoning five dogs outside in subzero temperatures, one of which died.

In a statement, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson described the incident as "shocking and beyond belief," adding that while what happened cannot be undone, what DCPS does now is critical. The school employee was placed on leave on December 17 pending an investigation, according to a DCPS spokesman. Parents and legislators are outraged that DCPS was aware of her criminal charges, convictions, and license revocation.