An investigation was under way here today by the Montreal Catholic School Commission of the practices by a seventh-grade teacher in a Catholic school who has compared Hitler to Christ as “a great leader,” decorated his blackboard with a photo of Hitler and the swastika symbol, and-organized his class of 11-year-old boys into Nazi-type military cadres, including “SS-men.”
However, while the probe was still on, and the offending Hitler photos have been ordered removed, Jean-Marie Mathieue, the Commission’s director of teaching, as well as Brother Asselin, director of the school, took no exception today to the teacher’s practices.
The teacher is 22-year-old Brother Rene Lahaie, who is in his first year on the faculty of the elementary school. La Mannais Catholique. In addition to comparing Hitler to Christ and displaying the swastika, he had also taught his children to say each day: “Heil Christ.”
M. Mathieue said today that the teacher’s “intentions were good, but the procedure itself is certainly extraordinary and open to criticism.” Brother Asselin expressed” surprise at the sudden interest” of the teacher’s methods. Saying that hundreds of parents had visited the school, he commented: “It seems to me the teacher could have chosen Saten and Christ, and no one would have asked any questions.”
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