School Is Considering Legal Action Against Kids Who Threw Up Nazi Salute In Photos

Get this: even people who are assholes are entitled to Free Speech

School launches investigation after prom picture of students appearing to perform Nazi salute goes viral

A Wisconsin school district is considering legal action after a photo of students appearing to give the Nazi salute went viral, prompting an apology from the photographer. Students are also alleging that their school routinely ignores racism.

“The photo of students posted to #BarabooProud is not reflective of the educational values and beliefs of the School District of Baraboo,” read a Monday tweet from the Baraboo School District in Wisconsin. “We are investigating and will pursue any and all available and appropriate actions, including legal, to address.”

If burning the U.S. flag is considered to be protected under the 1st Amendment, so are these little idiots. And Wisconsin does have the same protections in its state Constitution. Not quite sure what legal measures can be taken by kids being jerks. Here’s where it gets even dumber

Superintendent Lori Mueller also tweeted a letter sent to parents which read in part, “Early this morning, a photo that was taken last spring of some Baraboo School District students who appear to be making extremely inappropriate gestures began circulating on social media,” and she reiterated the district’s commitment to investigate with the help of local law enforcement.

“With that, we want to be very clear,” she wrote. “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 are respected and celebrated.”

So, everyone is respected and celebrated? But they’re going to go after these little idiots? Doesn’t sound like everyone is respected and celebrated. Sounds like intolerance. I wonder if these hardcore leftists even think before they write talking points like this, any sort of understanding that they don’t actually respect and celebrate anything outside of their little bubble.

There may or may not be more to these high school idiots doing this, you’re welcome to read the article. Regardless, again, even assholes have Free Speech protections from government. Not from private citizens blasting them, of course. We should also remember that people do dumb things all the time. I bet every single person blasting these kids have done something incredibly stupid.

It’s also interesting that the kids are now being bullied. I thought that was bad? Perhaps if they were shown compassion and told what they did wrong they’d realize the error of their ways.

Finally, see the kid front row left between guys in gray? He’s throwing the so-called White Power OK sign. He’s actually playing the circle game. And you just looked.

At the end of the day, you don’t have to agree with what someone says or does: but government can’t simply come in and punish speech it doesn’t like. The kids are still aholes, though. Even though they are kids, they should still know better. A few did. Most didn’t.

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25 Responses to “School Is Considering Legal Action Against Kids Who Threw Up Nazi Salute In Photos”

  1. I find it interesting that the school is “investigating” as if they have their own laws, legislatures, courts, judges, jails and police.

    This is really simple: If a law was broken, tell the police. If a rule in the school was broken, enforce the rule. It if was neither a rule, nor a law, ignore it and get back to work doing something like “teaching”.

  2. gitarcarver says:

    At the end of the day, you don’t have to agree with what someone says or does: but government can’t simply come in and punish speech it doesn’t like.

    Generally this is true. But these are students at a school and the case of Tinker v. Des Moines allows the school (the government) to restrict and deal with speech and actions of students that the administration feels may disrupt the educational environment.

    The school district needs to look into the circumstances surrounding this and what was happening in the picture. Perhaps there is a legitimate reason for the display, and if so, that needs to be fleshed out.

    Unfortunately, we live in an age of a rush to judgement. Even though the image was taken last spring, the posting and outrage about it has just started. People have already made up their minds absent of any information other than the image itself and that’s not right.

    This incident needs more facts and then appropriate conclusions can be made and actions, if warranted, can be taken.

    • Jethro says:

      He doesn’t need my support, but I agree with what gitarcarver said!

      • formwiz says:

        Hate to tell you guys, but those kids are within their rights.

        Anybody remember Skokie, not to mention a whole raft of kids wearing offensive T-shirts and stuff?

        • gitarcarver says:

          Sorry formwiz, but the Supreme Court has ruled that students do not possess the same rights of free speech as adults in other forums.

          In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist, the Supreme Court held that students may be subject to speech restrictions if the speech may, in the judgment of the administrators, impact the “special characteristics of the school environment.”

          The Court re-iterated the same thing in Morse v. Frederick, (the “Bong Hits for Jesus” case.) The Court ruled 1) that “the constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings” (“in light of the special characteristics of the school environment”). and 2) that the “substantial disruption” analysis prescribed by Tinker “is not absolute” (i.e., it is flexible/optional).

          In Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, the Court ruled that schools could limit and punish students under “school policies against disruptive behavior and the use of vulgar and offensive speech.”

          In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Court ruled that administrators could restrict content of school newspapers before the paper was published. (In the adult world, such actions would be considered “prior restraint” and a violation of the First Amendment.)

          If this were a case dealing with adults,I would agree with you that the First Amendment would apply. As it is a case involving a school and students, the rights under the First Amendment may be restricted according to the Supreme Court.

          • formwiz says:

            Out of curiosity, how old is that ruling?

            I ask because they used to rubber stamp these things.

          • gitarcarver says:

            formwiz,

            Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist – Argued: November 12, 1968. Decided: February 24, 1969

            Morse v. Frederick – Argued: March 19, 2007. Decided: June 25, 2007.

            Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser – Argued: March 3, 1986. Decided: July 7, 1986.

            Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier – Argued: October 13, 1987 Decided: January 13, 1988.

          • Mangoldielocks says:

            If you look closely at the picture there are more kids who are NOT saluting than ARE. I wonder if this becomes a guilty by association given their rights are severely limited in a school setting.

  3. If your school district has enough money to hire investigators, they have too much money.

  4. Deserttrek says:

    looks like a wave to me
    jerk offs want to be nazis so they accuse others

  5. Hoss says:

    Maybe they watched too much Man in the High Castle.

  6. bob says:

    a hate free zone where everyone is tolerant? apparently not if you’re a nazi. btw, nazi’s were left wing socialist.

  7. formwiz says:

    Don’t know if anybody’s still paying attention to this post, but, if it’s only Teach, you might want to publish something of a retraction. Or clarification. Or mea culpa.

    Or something.

    Nobody’s doing a Heil Hitler here. The kids were asked to wave to their parents.

    The whole thing was a setup.

    • gitarcarver says:

      That is what the photographer is saying. But that may not be the whole story:

      Pete Gust, the former-teacher-turned-photographer who shot the image, told The Associated Press that he had asked the teens to wave goodbye to their parents before heading off to prom.

      Jordan Blue, one of the students, who did not raise his arm, said he believes some of the students intended to make the Nazi salute as a joke.

      “When I saw what was happening, I was so upset,” Blue said in a Fox 6 interview. “If I knew what was happening, I would not have gone up there. I don’t believe in that kind of disrespect.”

      One of those students is senior Jordan Blue. The 18-year-old can be seen in the top right of the photo with his arms at his sides and a neutral expression while most of his classmates are pictured laughing.

      He said he thought some boys in the photo intended to make the Nazi gesture, citing the amount of tension that shows in their arms — but did so as a joke.

      “And I don’t think it should have been a joke,” he said, reiterating the gesture’s disrespectful nature to the Baraboo community, “a phenomenal community to live in.”

      Everybody at school was “shocked” about the photo, Blue said. He doesn’t think the photo is indicative of a recurring problem in the district. He noted that it could happen anywhere “and it just was unfortunate that it happened here,” but said it does need to be addressed.

      Since sharing his views about the matter on social media, he said many people have sent him supportive messages.

      “It was very upsetting to me,” he said. “It was very disrespectful to what my beliefs are, and it was a very bad representation of the senior class and the Baraboo School District, because by all means, the Baraboo School District does not support that kind of actions and it is a district that provides many opportunities for the students.”

      These kids weren’t “setup.”

      It appears that the photographer asked the kids to wave and some “jokingly” and knowingly gave a salute that is reminiscent of Nazi Germans.

      We should be able to say “that’s a really stupid and bad joke.”

      We should also question why any photographer should take such a picture when the subjects aren’t doing what he asked. (Or was the photographer so unaware of what was happening in his viewfinder?)

      Initially I said that we should let this all play out because all the facts weren’t known. Now that more and more facts are coming in, it appears that some of the kids were waving, some were doing nothing and some were giving a “Nazi salute.”

      The question is now “where to go from here?”

  8. david7134 says:

    Who really cares what the kids are doing?? If they are waving, good. If a salute, big deal. That is what is wrong with the US, every body is in everyone’s business.

    • gitarcarver says:

      It should be a “big deal” if these kids – the product of the public education system – don’t know and understand what they are saluting and the beliefs of the Nazis.

      Perhaps you believe that the salute and all it connotations is acceptable and perfectly fine for these kids to make. Perhaps you are fine with their ignorance and stupidity.

      Getting into “everybody’s business” is not the same thing as saying “the actions of the kids that gave the Nazi salute is morally repugnant.”

      • But it’s NOT morally repugnant. I used to do the same thing in school whenever someone was bossing me around in a way I didn’t like. Flipping them the Nazi salute was the same as calling them a Nazi. In our society, calling other people Nazis is like saying “hello”. It’s not just perfectly acceptable, it is almost required. If i had a dime for every time someone called me a Nazi just for voting for Trump, I’d have a sack of dimes large enough to club a baby seal.

        • For those who may have forgotten what “morally repugnant” looks like, here’s a short list:
          1. Going to a public even with a lock and chain in your pocket intending to beat senseless a total stranger.
          2. Setting a car or house on fire.
          3. Being an active member of a political ideology that is responsible for murdering over 100 million people in the last century.
          4. After wiping out mosquito-borne diseases in the Norther hemisphere, telling the southern hemisphere that they can’t use DDT because out songbirds are more important than their children, then watching 5 million of them die every year while handing out a few boxes of nets.
          5. Deciding to enslave your fellow citizens so you can use their productive labor to prop up your favorite charities and feel good about yourself for how “moral” you are.
          6. Publicly bringing false testimony against a sitting US judge accusing him of molesting children, gang rape and being an alcoholic just because you didn’t like who appointed him.

          Of course, that’s just a short list.

        • gitarcarver says:

          So you think that using the salute to mock something is the same thing as using the salute to indicate that you agree with Nazi’s.

          Got it.

  9. Mangoldielocks says:

    Hah. Look at the guy in the front row with the black suit and look at his hands which are down not raised in a salute. I remember the signs mean something but don’t remember what but their was an instance during the Kavanaugh hearing where a woman behind Kavanaugh apparently was giving those signs and the left went ballistic.

  10. Jethro says:

    National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism is the ideology and practices associated with the Nazi Party – officially the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – in Nazi Germany, and of other far-right groups with similar aims.
    Nazism is a form of fascism and showed that ideology’s disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system, but also incorporated fervent antisemitism, scientific racism, and eugenics into its creed.

    Its extreme nationalism came from Pan-Germanism and the Völkisch movement prominent in the German nationalism of the time, and it was strongly influenced by the anti-Communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged after Germany’s defeat in World War I, from which came the party’s “cult of violence” which was “at the heart of the movement.”
    Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying the Germans as a part of what the Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race. It aimed to overcome social divisions and create a German homogeneous society based on racial purity which represented a people’s community (Volksgemeinschaft). The Nazis aimed to unite all Germans living in historically German territory, as well as gain additional lands for German expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum and exclude those who they deemed either community aliens or “inferior” races.

    The term “National Socialism” arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of “socialism”, as an alternative to both international socialism and free market capitalism. Nazism rejected the Marxist concept of class conflict, opposed cosmopolitan internationalism, and sought to convince all parts of the new German society to subordinate their personal interests to the “common good”, accepting political interests as the main priority of economic organization.

    The Nazi Party, while “morally repugnant” to most people based on their ideals, exhibited a level of “moral repugnance” little seen in the modern world…

    The Holocaust, also referred to as the Shoah, was a genocide during World War II in which Nazi Germany, aided by its collaborators, systematically murdered some six million European Jews, around two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, between 1941 and 1945. Jews were targeted for extermination as part of a larger event involving the persecution and murder of other groups, including in particular the Roma and “incurably sick”, as well as ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Soviet citizens, Soviet prisoners of war, political opponents, gay men and Jehovah’s Witnesses, resulting in up to 17 million deaths overall.

    Can’t we all agree that Nazi salutes and paraphernalia are repugnant, and should be controlled in a free society by shaming and outrage, but not by law?

  11. gitarcarver says:

    Can’t we all agree that Nazi salutes and paraphernalia are repugnant, and should be controlled in a free society by shaming and outrage, but not by law?

    While “shaming and outrage” may be a part of the solution, I am leery of the mob controlling and demanding what should happen to these kids. (Duke lacrosse ring a bell?)

    I would much rather this be a “teaching moment” (ugh!) for these kids. Take them to a center / museum that deals with the Holocaust. Take them to a VA center and talk to the men who fought the Nazis. Take them to a military cemetery where the men who fought against the Nazis are buried. Take them to a place where the history of the Nazi oppression of occupied countries and the fear of death daily resistance fighters went through. Show them that men their age voluntarily signed up to fight the Nazis because of the threat they were to the rights and freedoms of everyone.

    TEACH them what they are saluting. TEACH them the issues. TEACH them that actions have consequences. TEACH them that they are about to leave the friendly and sheltered confines of a school environment and go into the real world where that type of salute or action can cost you a job, a relationship, etc.

    Growing up is about learning. People don’t learn anything if you bully and shame them into something. These kids should have enough critical thinking skills to be taught the implications and message of what they did.

    If they can learn from this, I’m good with that.

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