What on earth was the District of Columbia Public Schools thinking when they hired Kimberlynn Jurkowski as a librarian at Watkins Elementary School?

First, let’s set the stage, if you haven’t already heard the story – which is so insanely egregious that even the Washington Post was forced to cover it under “Local Education.”

A Watkins Elementary School staff member told third-graders in library class to reenact scenes from the Holocaust, directing them to dig their classmates’ mass graves and simulate shooting the victims, according to an email from the school’s principal. The instructor was placed on leave Friday.”

She allegedly assigned specific roles to students. She cast one student as Adolf Hitler, according to an email from Watkins Elementary School Principal MScott Berkowitz to the third-graders’ parents. He did not name the staff member. That student is Jewish, according to the parent of a student who was asked to participate. At the end of the exercise, the child was told to pretend to die by suicide, as Hitler did.”

A different parent of a student who was a part of the reenactment said her son had to pretend to be on a train to a concentration camp, then act as if he were dying in a gas chamber. He also had to act as if he were shooting his peers, the parent said. The parent spoke on the condition of anonymity and declined to name the child.”

The instructor allegedly made antisemitic comments during the reenactment. The parent said that when the children asked why the Germans did this, the staff member said it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas.”

The instructor asked students after the reenactment not to tell anyone about it, but they told their homeroom teacher, the parent said.”

I told you this was bad. This librarian knew that what she was doing was wrong, as evidenced by the fact that she told the kids not to tell anyone. They’re THIRD GRADERS who were supposed to be practicing a presentation in the library, and Jurkowski decided to commandeer a bunch of eight year olds into acting out her sick fantasies. No adult just spontaneously decides to do this. So who the hell is this woman, and why was she a librarian at Watkins Elementary?

Well, the Washington Free Beacon did some digging. Turns out, this librarian has quite a record in New Jersey.

A Washington Free Beacon investigation found that Jurkowski was hired by the D.C. public school after a scandalous tenure as a librarian in New Jersey, where she ran in 2010 for a local school board as a Democrat, according to an image posted to her Twitter account“.

There is no record of Jurkowski serving on the school board for Hamilton Township in Atlantic County, where she says she ran for office. There is record, however, of New Jersey catching Jurkowski bilking taxpayers out of approximately $24,000 through a program designed to help the children of the state’s educators. The Hamilton Township district paid for Jurkowski’s two children to receive tutoring—but she continued to bill the district for reimbursements once the tutoring stopped. She was convicted of fraud and forced to forfeit her librarian job, according to court records“.

Jurkowski’s legal problems continued in 2019 when she faced four charges of animal cruelty for leaving her dogs out in the cold. According to coverage at the time from Pet Rescue Report, Jurkowski left five dogs behind to survive frigid temperatures in a dilapidated environment. Body camera footage from police officers called to the site shows “the entire property was completely run down,” with “dogs in pens with sheets of plywood leaning against a fence to act as shelter.”

While the school district didn’t give the Free Beacon a comment, they did give one to the Washington Post, which confirmed Jurkowski’s record.

D.C. Public Schools has not said whether it knew of the incidents during her hiring process in 2014. Officials were moving “quickly and decisively” to investigate, Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said at a Monday news conference.”

“We do a thorough background check on all of our employees when they are hired,” Ferebee said. “We’re doing an investigation into the hiring process specifically to the staff member.”

The D.C. Public Schools hiring investigation usually includes criminal background check, according to a background sheet on its website. It also screens for any history of child abuse or neglect, and any allegations of sexual misconduct.”

And you want to know why the public schools are in trouble, showing off poor judgment and zero accountability for bad behavior? This is why:

Jurkowski, who has been with DCPS for seven years, makes $104,000, according to public records.”

Jurkowski is also listed as a member at-large in specialized services of the Washington Teachers’ Union. The union’s leaders said in a statement Tuesday that Jurkowski was placed on paid leave, which is “the normal course of action while a staffer is under investigation.”

“Let’s make no mistake — these are serious charges,” the union wrote in a statement. “Everyone has a right to due process and that is why the WTU supports a thorough investigation.”

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1473435061768929281
Local news stations are covering the story as well.

Is it really any surprise how Jurkowski got a job in the DC public schools, even with her record in New Jersey? She checked all the correct intersectional boxes, and was therefore hired. Her criminal record of abusing animals apparently didn’t translate for DCPS into traumatizing children. Her anti-Semitism and radical leftist views, which she had no problem expressing to third graders, is not exactly hidden on her social media.
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1473441822324269059
You would think that the DC public schools might care about her fraud conviction, and the fact that she defrauded her previous school district and was forced to give up her librarian job there. But apparently not. Jurkowski makes $104,000 a year at taxpayer expense – and this is the BEST that the DC public school system can find? She’s been with the DC public schools for seven years – how many of those years were at Watkins Elementary? I find it hard to believe that this is the VERY first time that she has pulled a stunt like this. Will we find other “incidents” on her record while in the District of Columbia Public Schools that just never made it to the Washington Post‘s pages?

It takes a very sick and deranged mind to make little kids act out the horrors of the Holocaust “because the Jews ruined Christmas.” Kimberlynn Jurkowski has zero business being around kids as a librarian, or as any kind of authority figure. DCPS had better fire her, immediately, and the teachers’ union had better let her go without a fight.

Featured image via Shannonmatthew on Pixabay, cropped and modified, Pixabay license