Associated Press

ALBANY — A high school English teacher could face disciplinary action for giving a writ­ing assignment that asked students to make a persuasive argument blaming Jews for the problems of Nazi Germa­ny, Albany school district officials said Friday. School district spokes­man Ron Lesko said ad­ministrators were dis­cussing what official ac­tion the 10th-grade teach­er at Albany High School could face for the assign­ment given to students on

Monday. The assignment, first reported Friday by the Albany Times Union, asked students to re­search Nazi propaganda, then assume their teach­er was a Nazi govern­ment official who had to be convinced of their loy­alty. The assignment told students they “must ar­gue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propa­ganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!” A third of the students refused to complete the assignment.

Superintendent Mar­guerite Vanden Wyn­gaard said she doesn’t be­lieve the teacher who handed out the assign­ment had malicious in­tent. The purpose of the assignment was to have students make an argu­ment based on limited in­formation, but it should have been worded differ­ently, she said.

“I don’t believe there was malice or intent to cause any insensitivities to our families of Jewish faith,” she said.