District moves gym teacher accused of denying Holocaust

Lori Sublette, the gym teacher accused of denying the Holocaust to students at Northwest Career and Technical Academy, was reassigned Tuesday to Johnston Middle School in North Las Vegas.

Citing personnel policies, Clark County School District spokesman Michael Rodriguez would not disclose whether any disciplinary action was taken or clarify what was said in the classroom about the World War II genocide, which killed more than 6 million European Jews and millions of Gypsies, homosexuals and other religious and ethnic minorities.

Sublette had been assigned to home since Dec. 18 as district officials investigated the incident. A senior who was in Sublette's mentoring class said Sublette denied the Nazis had the technology to carry out the Holocaust and said historical photos had been distorted.

Sublette did not return a call to her home Tuesday.

One father of a student at Northwest, a high school at 8200 Tropical Parkway, was outraged Sublette will have the opportunity to teach younger and more impressionable children at the middle school level.

The parent, who asked not to be named for professional reasons, said, "I understand they have polices that make it impossible to fire a teacher."

According to the allegations, the Holocaust denials occurred on Nov. 25. Sublette was not assigned to home until 23 days later when the Review-Journal reported the incident.

Another Northwest parent, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter's privacy, said the removal of the teacher from Northwest gave her a "great sense of relief that justice has been served."

The mother hoped the incident would teach students that there is a difference between "freedom of speech" and the "dissemination of lies."

Stephen Nasser, a Holocaust survivor and author of "My Brother's Voice," said he has been invited to lecture Feb. 2 at Northwest about the Holocaust.

Jewish leaders did not criticize the district's actions. Neither Phyllis Friedman, the director of the Anti-Defamation League of Nevada, nor Raymonde Fiol, the president of the Holocaust Survivors of Southern Nevada, called for Sublette's resignation.

Fiol said Sublette should follow district guidelines and "stick to her subject."

But some have questioned whether Sublette's life skills class at Northwest even had a curriculum. Students in the class are not given a grade, officials have said. Any licensed staff member at Northwest can teach the class after receiving in-service training.

Rodriguez said the class does have a curriculum, which is developed "in-house" by the Northwest staff.

Because middle school follows a different curriculum than high school, Sublette will not have the opportunity to teach another mentoring class, district officials said. Rodriguez said Sublette, 51, will be teaching physical education and health at Johnston.

Some Jewish students at Northwest said Sublette's comments had poisoned the atmosphere at the school, encouraging students to make anti-Semitic threats and jokes.

School police investigated a text message that mentioned Hitler and threatened to slit the throats of "slut(t)y Jews."

As of Tuesday, School Police Lt. Ken Young was not aware of any criminal charges filed in the case.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.