TEXAS HOLOCAUST LESSON MAY HAVE CROSSED THE LINE

Did Holocaust lesson go too far? (CBS-Fort Worth, TX)
It was meant to be a lesson about the Holocaust. But a school experiment in Texas is coming under fire....

One parent, who did not want to be identified, has a child who participated in the three week project. Anywhere from 50 to 100 9th graders taking an advanced placement geography class were designated as Jews and made to wear a Star of David on their I. D. badge. Other students were designated as Germans.

Rumors circulated that some students had been spit on, pushed, kicked and tripped. The parent said, if the rumors were true, it was, "totally uncalled for. It should not have been allowed to happen. If they would have stopped it sooner, it wouldn’t of got to that point.”

Of the program, the school's principal, John Aune, said students were "learning about the problems of intolerance and the problems of discrimination and helping kids understand what some people went through to change the world.”

According to students and teachers, the assigned Jews were forced to stand against the wall as the German students passed by in the hallway. The Jewish students ate lunch last and had to pick up every one's garbage. But some students say things began to escalate.

"We made beating sticks to hit the kids with," said Texas Medley, a student at the school. They were spit on. It was a good lesson but it went on too long.”

"They would spit on them. They would push them down the stairs. They would be really rude," said student Tiffany Zimmerman. "I think it was too rough and over the edge. They took it too far.”