Officials at a Southern California school district are investigating a student party after photos on social media showed Nazi symbols and high school students doing stiff-armed Hitler salutes, according to news reports.
The images reportedly show students from Newport Harbor High School, Costa Mesa High School and Estancia High School at a party where red cups are arranged on a table in the pattern of a Nazi swastika, according to news reports. Students in the photos are seen doing the Nazi Sieg Heil salute, KCAL reported, and some had captions like “German engineering.”
The photos were originally posted on Snapchat, where pictures and messages become inaccessible after a short time, KTLA reported. Someone made a screen grab of one of the photos and reposted it with the caption “we see you.”
Newport-Mesa Unified School District sent a letter to parents on Sunday about the party and the photographs, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“We were recently made aware of social media postings involving some students who created inappropriate anti-semitic symbols, and possible underage drinking,” the letter reportedly said. “While these actions did not occur on any school campus or school function, we condemn all acts of anti-semitism and hate in all their forms.”
School board president Charlene Metoyer told KCAL that officials “have a concern both for the physical health of students who are underage drinking as well as the mental health of our students or their friends that thought that this was an OK thing to do.”
Vice president Martha Fluor, told The Times: “I find it just reprehensible that we still have pockets of our community that still think this is OK. This is unacceptable behavior both from a health standpoint with potential underage drinking as well as from a moral and ethical position.”
Students who didn’t attend the party expressed dismay at the party-goers’ behavior. Newport Harbor student Isabel Morris told KTLA that students were being encouraged to wear blue to school on Monday as a way of condemning anti-Semitism and showing solidarity with the Jewish community.
