Four videos have emerged showing a group of Southern California high school students wrapping themselves in a Confederate flag, singing Nazi songs and making Nazi salutes while marching with a German flag.
The first video surfaced on Monday, showing approximately a dozen members of the Pacifica High School polo team in Garden Grove, California, throwing the salute used to greet Adolf Hitler while singing a Nazi marching song played for German troops during World War II, according to The Daily Beast.
According to school officials, the incident occurred in an unsupervised banquet room during an awards ceremony last year. One of the athletes uploaded the video to his Instagram story and posted the song lyrics to his Instagram bio.
Three more racist videos emerged Wednesday, one showing students making the same salute while singing a German song outdoors. One of the students is also wearing a Confederate flag draped over his body. Another video shows two students goose-stepping while one carries Germany’s flag.
Two of the new videos are from last year and one is from three years ago, but shows students who still attend the school, reports ABC 7.
Three new videos — potentially three more examples of #racism & #extremism at Pacifica High School in Orange County.
These videos are now part of a bigger investigation at the school.
1st & 2nd vid from last school year.
3rd vid from 3 yrs ago but show current students.@ABC7 pic.twitter.com/ieOun4FyZl— Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) August 21, 2019
A spokesperson for the Garden Grove Unified School District told The Daily Beast that school administrators became aware of the first incident back in March — four months after it was filmed. Officials have said they disciplined the students but won’t say how.
“When Pacifica High School administrators first learned of this offensive video four months afterward, the investigation included disparate accounts and lacked details that have since emerged,” the district said. “School administrators addressed the situation with the students shown in the video and their families but did not involve the larger school or district community in addressing the issue.”
On Tuesday, prior to the release of the additional videos, teachers and concerned parents attended a school board meeting to express anger that they were not notified of the incident.
“You had an obligation to let us know about this event. You failed miserably,” said parent Randy Steiner.
Following the release of the additional videos, Pacifica High School Principal Steve Osborne said administrators are reopening and widening their investigation.
The school said, “Any students engaging in hate speech or activities will face disciplinary action in accordance with the California Education Code.”
Peter Simi, a professor on extremism studies at Chapman University, said the obscurity of the song, which was played to inspire Nazi troops serving in Germany’s armed forces, raises serious concerns.
“It’s not something you’d expect somebody to accidentally know about. There’s some means by which they acquired knowledge about the song and associated Nazi issues,” he said. “Are they on websites or web forums or other social media platforms where they’re engaging with others informed on these issues?”
According to a March report released by The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), white supremacy propaganda increased 182% in 2018.
In 2018, there were 1,187 cases of white supremacist propaganda — 766 more than in 2017.
