HB2409: Holocaust education; Board of Education to establish objectives therefor.


HOUSE BILL NO. 2409
AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE
(Proposed by the House Committee on Education
on February 4, 2009)
(Patron Prior to Substitute--Delegate Hall)
A BILL to require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to distribute a teacher's manual on Holocaust education.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  1. That the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall select and distribute to all local school divisions a teacher's manual, with instructions for its use in the classroom, that emphasizes the causes and ramifications of the Holocaust and genocide. Each local school division shall provide the manual to each history and literature teacher.

HOUSE BILL NO. 2409
Offered January 14, 2009
Prefiled January 14, 2009
A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 22.1-207.01, relating to Holocaust education.
Patrons-- Hall, BaCote, Hull, Morrissey, Shannon and Spruill
Committee Referral Pending

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 22.1-207.01 as follows:

22.1-207.01. Holocaust education.

Instruction on the official Nazi program designed to exterminate European Jews and other groups during the Second World War, known in history and remembered throughout humanity as the Holocaust, shall be required in the public middle and high schools of the Commonwealth. The Board of Education shall establish objectives for Holocaust education, with emphasis on the causes and ramifications of the Holocaust, to be infused systematically into appropriate curriculum areas and Standards of Learning. The objectives shall include, but not be limited to, an investigation of human behavior, an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping, and an examination of what it means to be a responsible and respectful person, for the purposes of encouraging tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society and for nurturing and protecting democratic values and institutions.