MASSACHUSETTS COURT DISMISSES LAWSUIT DEMANDING INCLUSION OF GENOCIDE DENIAL IN SCHOOLS
/massachusetts-court-dismisses-lawsuit-demanding-i nclusion-of-genocide-denial-in-schools/
June 10, 2009
WATERTOWN, Mass.-In a major setback for genocide denial, U.S. District
Court Judge Mark Wolf today dismissed a case initiated at the prompting
of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) that would
have compelled the inclusion of historically inaccurate Armenian
Genocide denial materials in the Massachusetts education curriculum,
reported the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Massachusetts.
"Today’s judgment sends a clear message that the federal court system
cannot be abused by genocide deniers to spread their lies across
America’s classroom," said ANC of MA chairperson Shari Ardhaldjian. "We
welcome this decision and the powerful precedent its sets for the
future of genocide education here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
and throughout the nation."
The ATAA, according to media accounts, solicited the assistance
of two local teachers, a student, and his parents to file the case
against the state of Massachusetts in 2005. In February 2006, the
ANC joined the Armenian Bar Association, Irish Immigration Society,
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, and the NAACP in filing
an amicus brief in support of the Massachusetts Commonwealth’s calls
to dismiss the case. The brief was filed and presented by attorney
Gabrielle R. Wolohojian, then of Wilmer, Cutler, Hale and Dorr LLP,
who championed the case pro-bono. The Armenian Assembly of America
also filed an amicus brief.
In his opinion, Chief Judge Wolf dismissed the case stating that the
plaintiffs are "are not entitled to relief in federal court." The
dismissal at this early stage of the proceedings is viewed in legal
circles as meaning the cased lacked even minimal merit.
This case is part of a larger strategy by Turkish American groups
to use the legal system to harass human rights advocates on issues
relating to the Armenian Genocide. The most recent instance is the
lawsuit filed against the Southern Poverty Law Center for articles
detailing Turkish government efforts to manipulate U.S. academia to
deny that crime against humanity.
The Massachusetts Genocide teaching guide was mandated to include
the Armenian Genocide following the August 1998 unanimous passage
of House Bill 3629, "An Act Relative to the Instruction of the Great
Hunger Period in Ireland, the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust." ANC
chapters throughout Massachusetts had worked with bill authors State
Senator Steve Tolman and House Member Warren Tolman in support of the
measure, which stated that "The Board of Education shall formulate
recommendations on curricular materials on genocide and human rights
issues, and guidelines for the teaching of such material." The law
specifically calls for the teaching of "the period of the transatlantic
slave trade and the middle passage, the great hunger period in Ireland,
the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Mussolini fascist regime
and other recognized human rights violations and genocides."
The ANC of MA continued to work with the Massachusetts Board of
Education, providing information on peer-reviewed, teacher-tested
resources for inclusion in the teaching guide. In June 1999, the ANC
of MA protested the proposed inclusion of denial propaganda in the
teaching guide that lobby groups, among them the ATAA, had pressured
the Board of Education to add in its second version of the guide. In
a letter to Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci, the chairmen of
the state’s four ANC chapters argued that inclusion of such websites
"is directly counter to the intent of the law." The letter went on
to note that "careless intermingling of genocide denial with the
documentary sources it aims to obscure will only serve to confuse
students and undermine academic integrity."
In August 1999, in a letter to the ATAA made public as part of the
lawsuit, the Board of Education argued that "since the legislative
intent of the statute was to address the Armenian Genocide, and not
to debate whether or not this occurred, the Board and Department
of Education cannot knowingly include resources that call this into
question." By October 1999, the denial material was removed from the
teacher’s guide.
In 2002, the ANC of MA again took action regarding the genocide
curriculum, when a revised version which was up for review in May,
against a proposal to remove the Armenian Genocide from the curriculum
and replace it with a euphemistic and evasive reference to Armenian
"slaughter." Community leaders again worked with Department of
Education Commissioner David Driscoll to ensure that the proper
terminology was maintained.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
