Screenshot via Twitter
Students at Baraboo High School in Wisconsin have posted and deleted an image of a group of young men using the Nazi salute.
The image, which was first posted by the Twitter handle @GoBaraboo at 8:56 p.m. on Sunday, November 11, showed a group of over 50 young white males using the Nazi salute while posing for junior prom photos. The photo was posted with the caption “We even got the black kid to throw it up #barabooproud.” The tweet was reportedly deleted a short time later.
In addition to the Nazi salute, which was popularized by the Nazi party in the 1930s and 1940s, one male student is pictured gleefully using “white power okay sign.”
Following the circulation of the image, the school district’s Twitter account retweeted a statement from Lori M. Mueller, one of the school’s administrators.
“The photo of students posted to #BarabooProud is not reflective of the educational values and beliefs of the School District of Baraboo. The District will pursue any and all available and appropriate actions, including legal, to address,” the tweet read.
Furthermore, the Auschwitz Memorial Museum weighed in on the image, saying that it is “so hard to find words” to describe their feelings:
It is so hard to find words… This is why every single day we work hard to educate. We need to explain what is the danger of hateful ideology rising. Auschwitz with its gas chambers was at the very end of the long process of normalizing and accommodating hatred,” Auschwitz Memorial tweeted.
The Baraboo School District has an official anti-discrimination statement posted on its website, which states that the district does not discriminate “on the basis of sex, race, national origin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, religion, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or physical, mental, emotional, or learning disability or handicap in its education programs or activities.”
“The School District of Baraboo does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, national origin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, religion, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or physical, mental, emotional, or learning disability or handicap in its education programs (including career or technical educational programs) or activities. The School District of Baraboo will not tolerate harassment based on sex. No student or employee of the School District of Baraboo shall be denied fair and equal treatment under the law and the District is required by Title IX not to discriminate in such a manner.”
At this time, the school district in investigating the image and will pursue “any and all available and appropriate actions, including legal” to address the abhorrent image and the students responsible.