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Schools Chief Under Fire For Anonymous Blogging

By Lesli A. Maxwell — July 08, 2014 1 min read
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John Huppenthal, the Republican superintendent of schools in Arizona, has admitted to anonymously posting inflammatory comments on blogs, making that admission after a Democratic political blogger outed the schools chief last month.

He issued his apology exclusively to The Arizona Republic. According to the newspaper, Mr. Huppenthal posted anonymously on an array of political blogs in recent years under several screen names, including the ancient Greek historian Thucydides.

Among some of his more inflammatory posts was one in which he referred to welfare recipients as “lazy pigs.” He pinned blame on Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf Hitler. The Phoenix New Times also cited a posting in which Mr. Huppenthal said that Mexican-American studies courses taught in Tucson’s public schools “use the exact same technique that Hitler used in his rise to power.”

A version of this article appeared in the July 10, 2014 edition of Education Week as Schools Chief Under Fire For Anonymous Blogging

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