Frank Navarro, a History teacher from Mountain View High was placed on paid leave after comparing president-elect Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler during his class.
Navarro, who has been teaching in the said school for 40 years, was suspended after a parent sent an email to the school about his complaints and concerns on the lecture made by Navarro in class.
An expert in Holocaust, Navarro claimed his lesson was just based on historical facts and are not based on his personal opinions. He added that the discussion was about the rise in power of both Trump and Hitler and their goal to make their country "great again."
"This feels like we're trying to squash free speech," he said. "Everything I talk about is factually based. They can go and check it out. He emphasized that it is not propaganda or bias if it's based on hard facts.
Jeff Harding, Mountain View/Los Altos High School District Superintendent, confirmed the incident but declined to give the details about the complaints and the email of the parent. Navarro was not even given the chance to read the content of the complaint.
Petition site Change.org was able to gather more than 6,500 signatures Sunday morning to revoke the suspension of Navarro and to demand an apology to the teacher from the school.
Navarro told Mercury News that the school officials informed him he can return Wednesday but Harding told him he can already return as early as Monday.
"We are interested in getting Frank back in the classroom...we're just trying to maintain our due diligence," he said. "We have a heightened emotional environment right now with the election. It's always a challenge to maintain a line in a classroom."
