US School Expels Japanese Delegation for Anti-Nuclear Fliers

ATLANTA, Georgia – A Japanese delegation invited to speak to local high school students about Hiroshima this week was asked to leave the campus after school officials found them distributing anti-nuclear fliers, a school administrator said.

The delegation of 12 men and women, which included survivors of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, was initially invited to Towers High School in South DeKalb County on Wednesday to give a history lesson about the bombing.

But DeKalb County school officials asked several members of the group to leave the school grounds after they were handed a flier they said the group was distributing in the Atlanta area, warning of nuclear "destruction" and the potential use of nuclear weapons by the United States.

"The flier they were distributing was not in the context of the curriculum initially presented to us," said Crawford Lewis, executive director of school administration for DeKalb County schools.

"They were talking about disasters of major proportions and predicting the future. That's not something that was in the context of a history lesson we hoped they would provide. The flier did not make any of us feel comfortable letting them in a classroom," Lewis said.

The group – hosted by Steve Leeper, president of the Global Peacemakers Association and a founding member of the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition – was scheduled to hold a forum on nuclear arms in Atlanta late Thursday.