An Australian school principal has apologised for awarding his school's Book Week "Best Dressed" award to a student dressed as Adolf Hitler.
The student reportedly asked if he was able to dress as Hitler, and was given permission by a teacher at the school, the ABC reports. Roger Herbert, the principal of St Philip's College in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, said he takes "full responsibility".
The school was hosting Jewish students from Melbourne at the time of the Book Week costume parade.
Herbert says he immediately apologised to the students.
He says series of errors of judgement led to student being named among the best dressed & if he had his time again he'd nip it in the bud
Principal: We have "exchange students from Bialik College... [We] apologised and they were fantastic, absolutely fantastic and accepting."
1/2: Student in #Alicesprings who dressed up as Adolf Hitler for St Philip's college book week was awarded 1 of the prizes for best dressed
In August, a mother celebrated her "parenting win" when she dressed her son in blackface. This was quickly followed by an Indigenous mother defending the "blackface parenting win" with an example of her own child in whiteface.
Another Book Week parent dressed his son as former AFL player Ben Cousins, complete with baking powder "cocaine" on his nose.
Australian Book Week controversies 2016 edition: - Kid dressed in black face - Kid dressed in white face - Kid dressed as Adolf Hitler
When news broke of the latest incident, Twitter was quick to react.
perhaps the reason halloween hasn't taken off in australia is that we simply cannot be trusted with a dress up https://t.co/KDFJeg42VN
when I was a kid, I dressed as Where's Wally for book week. Things sure have changed
when is the government going to take a stand against the cultural farce that is book week
St Philip's has released a statement saying the choice to allow a student to dress as Hitler was an "innocent mistake".
"This was an innocent mistake by a teacher who is a respected, honourable and lovely person who got it wrong on the day," says the statement.
"The student involved has an interest in history and politics and did the right thing by getting permission for his 'book week' costume."
"The school apologises unreservedly for any offence that has been caused. We have been in touch with the principal of the visiting students who were present on the day and they have accepted our apology."
"We are reviewing our policies on these kind of events to ensure that nothing like this can happen again."
"The school is providing support and assistance to the teacher, the student, and their family. It has been a very distressing lesson for all concerned."