Oklahoma Public School Students Shown Film Comparing Abortion to the Holocaust
In May, students at an Oklahoma public high school were given copies of a DVD comparing the Holocaust to abortion—with no warning of the content of the film—after a local family asked the school if copies of the DVD could be passed out to students.
Surprisingly, and perhaps unknowingly, the school agreed to pass out the film to students as long as the students got permission from their parents first. The film, entitled 180, begins with Holocaust and concentration camp imagery before making the comparison between Hitler, Nazi Germany and people who are pro-choice.
Superintendent Marte Thompson said that a student aide accidentally gave out copies of the movie before parents had been asked to give consent. Once school officials realized the nature of the DVD, all copies were confiscated and returned to the local family.
But one student’s stepfather said the students weren’t even informed about what kind of DVD they were receiving—the students came to their lockers to find notes telling them to pick up their free DVDs. And concerned parent Marty Angus says the students watched the movie in class.
“I thought it was graphic and a clear violation between church and state and it was just awful to be shown to a high school student,” Angus told a Fox affiliate.
The film was produced by the Christian ministry, Living Waters. When it was released in 2011, the Anti-Defamation League called the film “one of the most offensive and outrageous abuses of the memory of the Holocaust we have seen in years.”