A high school in Baraboo, Wisc., is currently under investigation after a picture of dozens white male students throwing up the Nazi salute at their junior prom was recently shared on Twitter.
The photo in question shows more than 50 young men in suits smiling and laughing on the steps of the county courthouse in the town of about 10,000 people. The racist ‘Sieg Heil’ greeting was first done by Adolf Hitler’s Army in Nazi Germany.
The majority of the group performed the salute and others who didn’t were in the photo laughing and smiling. A boy on the far right towards the back of the photo is the only student who didn’t engage in the bigoted act.
The photo was taken last year during the school’s junior prom. Those boys are now seniors.
Lori Mueller, the school district superintendent, stated she was investigating the image. Mueller continued: “The photo of students posted to #BarabooProud is not reflective of the educational values and beliefs of the School District of Baraboo. We are investigating and will pursue any and all available and appropriate actions, including legal, to address.”
There is only one high school in the district so it’s difficult to believe that nobody saw the disgusting photo one year ago.
Letters were sent to parents on Monday, Mueller said the photo was taken “last spring” and features Baraboo students “who appear to be making extremely inappropriate gestures”.
The letter also read: “The Baraboo School District is a hate-free environment where all people, regardless of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or ancestry.”
To clarify, an inappropriate gesture would be the boys “flipping a bird” in the photo not collectively throwing up a white supremacist salute.
The tweet even claims that a Black student was tossing up the sign. It’s not clear from the photo if he was or not.
Wisconsin’s population is 87.3 percent white, a much less diverse population than average, and Baraboo has an almost 91 percent white population with the predominant age group being 45-54. Ironically, white women and men in this age range are almost equal with white women edging out white men by a small margin.
In 2017, Wisconsin had a lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita ($47,266) than the U.S. average ($53,128.54); and a lower GDP growth rate (1.7 percent) than the U.S. average (2.3 percent).
A former student at the high school, who graduated earlier this year and wished to remain anonymous, said that this was not an isolated incident. She went on to say that problematic behavior typically went unpunished. Of course it does.
