A Wisconsin high school has found itself at the center of controversy – and a police investigation – after a group of students were photographed making Nazi salutes and far-right hand gestures at their prom.
The photo of some 50 young men from the Baraboo High School performing the stiff-armed ‘Sieg Heil’ greeting quickly went viral online. The photo was taken during the students’ junior prom, but resurfaced last weekend when it was posted to Twitter with the caption: “We even got the black kid to throw it up.”
Twitter users were baffled by the image and wondered what could have prompted the suit-clad teens to extend their right arms in the air in the style of the infamous Nazi salute.
School District Superintendent Lori Mueller tweeted that the photograph was “not reflective of the educational values and beliefs” of the school – but Twitter was not entirely convinced, with many pointing out that the school district’s logo was reminiscent of a Nazi eagle.
Some called for the students and any teachers present when the photo was taken to be expelled or fired immediately.
Others suggested that a visit to a nearby veterans hospital to speak to men who fought in World War II – or a day spent watching documentary reels from Nazi concentration camps – might set the students straight.
The school itself called the Nazi salute “an extremely inappropriate gesture” but attempted to distance itself from the controversy, pointing out that photograph had not been taken on school grounds or at a school-sponsored event.
The controversy even reached the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, which denounced the image, saying that people needed to understand “the danger of hateful ideology” rising up. “Auschwitz with its gas chambers was at the very end of the long process of normalizing and accommodating hatred,” the museum said.
But that was all only the beginning of the school’s bashing.
New details then began to emerge online as people claiming to be students or former students of the school contacted journalists with stories of bullying and racial harassment, which they said the school did not act upon. One journalist said he had received “probably over 100 stories” from Baraboo students and parents.
In a statement on Facebook, the Baraboo Police Department said it was “aware” of the photo and was assisting the school district with its investigation.
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