A Wisconsin school district is investigating a junior prom photo taken last year of boys apparently doing the Nazi “Sig Heil” salute.
Baraboo Superintendent Lori Mueller says she became aware of the photo on Monday after it was posted on social media. Mueller says the photo appears to have been taken last spring and was not on school grounds.
Vice and “The Young Turks” contributor Jules Suzdaltsev posted the picture of the now-senior boys from Carly Sidey, who originally posted on her now-private Twitter account a photo from another now-private account that stated, “We even got the black kid to throw it up #BarabooProud.”
Mueller said the photo does not reflect the district’s values, and that administrators will seek appropriate action. Additionally, Baraboo police are investigating.
However, that assurance has apparently been all but enough for some members in the community as the school has faced backlash over allegedly failing to properly address racist bullying.
“I would also like to let you know that I went to baraboo high school and graduated in June,” an anonymous alum, who was called a “n*****,” told Suzdaltsev, who posted the exchangein a Twitter thread. “I’m mixed and a classmate of mine posted this about me. When my friend reported it to the school, they did nothing. They said ‘they couldn’t prove it was her’ even though one of her friends told them it was her.”
Another student messaged Suzdaltsev, “2 years ago today the kid on the far right of the prom picture put this photo of me on his [Snapchat] story and tried to make fun of me for not supporting [Donald] Trump. He continued to mock and harass me for being a feminist as well. When I confronted him about this image being on his [Snapchat] story, he responded by putting another photo of me on his [Snapchat] story captioned ‘[I] do what [I] want.’”
The student continued, “When I went to the [principal’s] office to tell them [I] was being harassed, they just simply had him delete the [Snapchat stories] and there were no further repercussions.”
One student in the photo was Jordan Blue, in the upper far right, who refused to do the salute in the photo. Blue’s move was reminiscent of August Landmesser, who famously refused to salute Hitler in a viral photo of him crossing his arms while those around him salute the Nazi leader.
“I clearly am uncomfortable with what was happening,” Blue told Suzdaltsev. “I couldn’t leave the photo as it was taken within 5 seconds. The photographer took the photos telling us to make the sign, I knew what my morals were, and it was not to salute something I firmly didn’t believe in.”
“I attend BHS, these classmates have bullied me since middle school, I have struggled with it my entire life and nothing has changed,” added Blue. “These are the [boys] of Class of 2019, nothing has been done and my question is … [Will] anything be done. I truly & firmly believe we need to make a change to this horrible act, it needs to stop. Bullying. Immaturity. [And] just taking things as a ‘joke.’ ”
