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The 26,000-student Rialto Unified School District in Southern California asked its 2,000 eighth graders this spring to write an in-class essay assignment on whether or not the Holocaust occurred, and gave students print-outs from a Holocaust denial site as one of three "credible sources" they were required to base their work on. The district initially claimed that no students had denied the Holocaust occurred, but after the students' essays were obtained through a California Public Records Act request, it turned out that dozens of students had done so, some of them earning high marks along the way. The revelation led to international condemnation, the establishment of a new lesson plan for the rising ninth graders, the departure of high-ranking officials within the district and may have contributed to the school board president choosing to not run for reelection.