(JNS.org) The Rialto Unified School District in southern California said it would alter an assignment that asked eighth grade students to write an essay about whether they believe the Holocaust actually took place or was “merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain.” District spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said Monday that the assignment “was an error” and will be revised by a team of teachers, The Associated Press reported.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in a statement suggested that the school district visit the center’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles to “learn about Anne Frank and the 1.5 million other Jewish children who were murdered during the Nazi Holocaust for the crime of being born Jewish.”