Members of a Kansas high school basketball team were recently filmed in their locker room making Nazi salute while a German song played in the background.
“Horrific – a group of freshman basketball players at a Kansas area high school were filmed performing Nazi salutes with a German song playing in the background during a hazing stunt,” StopAntisemitism.org said on Twitter. “Important to note the students are standing in showers as Jews during the Holocaust did prior to often being gassed.”
They added that “the sheriff’s office is investigating” as it “appears to be an illegal hazing incident.”
Burlingame School District Superintendent Marcy Cassidy confirmed to the University Daily Kansan that the incident involving the Burlingame High School students is currently under investigation.
“We care about all of our students at Burlingame, and our goal is to try to help them to understand the context and effects of their actions,” Cassidy said.
Kansas University professor Donald Haider-Markel told the news outlet that antisemitism education should be taught not only in schools but also by parents.
“They can make it clear that this is not appropriate,” Haider-Markel said. “There is the basic fact that since roughly 2015, 2016, some people seem more comfortable expressing explicitly racist or antisemitic views in public.”
Cassidy said that she was unable to give any further details on the investigation into the students’ behavior as it would be in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).