California ‘Nazi High’ forced to reopen probe after students caught throwing salutes in more videos

Orange County high school students were caught on film giving Nazi salutes and singing Nazi marching songs, outraging the community after school administrators appeared to be trying to cover it up – until even more videos emerged.

About a dozen members of the Pacifica High School boys’ water polo team are seen giving Nazi salutes in a banquet room in the first video, which went public on Monday. One begins to sing an obscure Nazi marching song and a few others join in before the clip ends.

Administrators at the school, located in Garden Grove, California, claim the children in the video were spoken to without involving the larger Pacifica community, but insist their hands were tied as they lacked “details that have since emerged.” The school has been forced to re-open the case after more videos emerged, and the Pacifica community is outraged they were not told about the original incident.

The new clips show a pair of boys goose-stepping with a German flag, a circle of boys giving Nazi salutes as they shout “Heil!” and one child apparently wearing a Confederate flag as a cape. The videos were reportedly filmed last year.

“We've recently received new allegations, new photos and video, even within the past hour and new claims that have led us to re-open and widen the scope of the investigation,” principal Steve Osborne told a district board meeting on Tuesday night. “We are sorry that our investigation and our transparency with the Pacifica community fell drastically short. In retrospect our judgment was wrong and we take full responsibility for that.”

“You had an obligation to let us know about this event. You failed miserably,” Randy Steiner, a parent of a Pacifica student, seethed, as cited by local media. Police were present at the meeting as parents and even teachers raged that they had been kept out of the loop.

Students at the school – including many not involved in the videos – have been receiving death threats, according to a statement the school issued on Tuesday. The school has laid out a plan to adopt a “Human Relations Taskforce” and work with the Anti-Defamation League and Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance and has urged the media not to judge the entire community based on the students in the videos.

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