RIALTO, Calif. – Authors of an English assignment that asked 8^th graders in a California school district to investigate whether the Holocaust was “a profitable hoax” have been ordered to undergo sensitivity training.

The assignment in question – which was part of a larger, 18-page assignment given to students in the Rialto Unified School District – triggered a media firestorm when it was made public late last week by SBSun.com.

According to SBSun.com, Rialto students were asked to consider if the Holocaust was “an actual historical event” or if it might have been “a propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain.”

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Students were directed to “research” the issue and take a position on it, supporting their conclusion with “textual evidence.”

“Remember to address counterclaims (rebuttals) to your stated claim. You are also required to use parenthetical (internal) citations and to provide a Works Cited page,” the assignment read.

As anyone over the age of, oh, 18 could have predicted, news of the assignment triggered a strong public backlash from citizens who can’t believe a public school would waste precious instructional time in such a stupid way. It’s been well-established that some 6 million Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust; only radical Muslims who want to drive Israel into the Mediterranean Sea doubt the atrocities occurred.

And that brings us to another concern. Critics of the assignment were understandably bothered to hear teachers were actually directing students to “black helicopter” Internet sites, thus giving the Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists a measure of respectability they don’t deserve.

Rialto school officials initially defended the assignment as an exercise in critical thinking – a centerpiece of the new Common Core learning standards. That defense lasted just a few days, until Rialto officials realized the outraged public would not be pacified with so weak a response.

Earlier this week, Rialto school officials amended the assignment, according to CBS Los Angeles.

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“We are striking the sentence that claims, ‘Did the Holocaust occur?’” said Rialto District spokesperson Syeda Jafri. “Absolutely the Holocaust occurred. It was an error and we have to correct it.”

It’s not clear if that will be enough to prevent Rialto schools Superintendent Mohammad Z. Islam from receiving more death threats from unhinged individuals who apparently think it’s appropriate to defend the memory of the Holocaust by threatening violence against their fellow man.

Some are blaming this controversy on Common Core, but we’re not so sure. We’re as opposed to the nationalized learning standards as anyone, but this controversy is really the work of a bunch of school bureaucrats who created an assignment without stopping to question its appropriateness.

It seems that every week, there’s another news story about public school leaders implementing a completely foolish policy or assignment that leaves ordinary people asking, “They did what?”

It’s time for the adults running our education system to stop behaving like the children they’re in charge of, and to act like the highly trained educational professionals they assure us they are.