Male Students Give Nazi Salute at Almost All-White School

Kyle Sledge

Controversy has flooded Baraboo High School this week over a picture of all of the class of 2019 boys doing a Nazi salute for a prom picture at their last year’s prom.  The school in Wisconsin is a nearly all-white school. Controversy started when a tweet was posted by Jules Suzdaltsev saying, “If anybody from Baraboo High School in Wisconsin can clue me in on why it appears the entire male class of 2018 is throwing up a Sig Heil during their prom photos – that would be great.”  

 

The now-seniors were having pictures taken by a photographer at their junior prom in the spring, and the photographer wanted separate pictures of the boys and girls.  When the boys were in place for their photo, they all made the same gesture to the camera. After the photo was just recently spread around the internet, people have blown up on the high school and the students that made the gesture.  The picture even made national news. Tweets have been made by students of Baraboo telling about their experiences at the school and Jules Sazdaltsev, a writer that brought up the photo on twitter, has received texts from recent graduates of the school telling about the student body and staff.  One 2018 graduate said that they saw racism in the school and heard the n-word being used all the time. Another graduate said that there was often talk about white supremacy in the high school. Some of the boys in the photo also contacted Jules, one saying, “The photographer told us to do the fist in the air like what they did in the end of breakfast club, then we didn’t understand he put up his right arm in the salute position to point to my side of the group which someone took as the Nazi salute then we all just thought that’s what he meant.”  The student said in a later message, “The investigation is still ongoing and I cannot say anything else about it.”