A Washington, D.C., elementary school staffer has been placed on leave after organizing a reenactment of the Holocaust for a class of third graders and casting a Jewish student as Adolf Hitler.

Third grade students at Watkins Elementary School reenacted elements of the Holocaust, including mass gravedigging and simulated executions, the Washington Post reported.

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One student, who is reportedly Jewish, was cast to play Adolf Hitler and was “told to pretend to commit suicide, as Hitler did” to finish the reenactment.

The staff member, who has not been identified and has been placed on administrative leave, organized the reenactment during a “library class” in which students were supposed to be doing research for a “self-directed project they would present to their classmates before winter break.”

School Principal MScott Berkowitz emailed parents after the incident, telling them, “I want to acknowledge the gravity of this poor instructional decision, as students should never be asked to act out or portray any atrocity, especially genocide, war, or murder.”

A parent told the Washington Post that “the instructor asked students after the reenactment not to tell anyone about it, but they told their homeroom teacher.”

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The incident is now under investigation by the D.C. Public Schools’ Comprehensive Alternative Resolution and Equity Team, and a D.C. Public Schools spokesperson said the reenactment was “not an approved lesson plan, and we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident."