Newport Beach students denounce photo of fellow students at party with swastika image.

KABC TV Los Angeles ^ | 3/5/19 | Anabel Munoz and Josh Haskell

[L.A.Justice]

Students and parents at a Newport Beach high school are infuriated after a photo of partygoers believed to be students at the school showed them posing alongside anti-Semitic imagery.

The picture shows a group of teens in a Nazi salute and a swastika formed out of plastic cups. At least some of the partygoers are believed to be students at Newport Harbor High School.

The incident triggered a conversation on the campus about the past, present and anti-Semitism.

An open letter was written by Jewish students addressed to the school's administration and community saying the photo is not an isolated event.

"It's in our own school. You pee next to swastikas etched on the walls, you write your essays on desks that have swastikas etched into them," student Max Drakeford said.

Newport Harbor High School hosted a forum with the principals of several high schools and members of the Jewish community around 6 p.m. Monday.

More than 500 parents, teachers and students attended the meeting, saying the incident is one of many problems and that it needs to be addressed.

"The blame is on all of us really. This environment allowed them all to feel comfortable enough to do that," Drakeford said during the meeting.

The packed chambers included speeches from rabbis, honoring Holocaust survivors who were in the audience and emotional speeches from students.

"What I'm most concerned about of the 20 plus people there, is that no one stepped up and said anything," Ben Kwong said.

Student Gina Leanna said that the privilege in the community can lead to these incidents.

"I am standing here today to speak up for anyone who has felt marginalized in this community," she said. "We live in an extremely privileged community and that privilege can lead to bigotry, ignorance and hate. It is our job - not just the school administrators, not just the principals - the community needs to change."

Newport Beach resident Chad Towersey said he personally knows some of the students in the photo, and said their parents are not taking the action lightly.

"Not all the kids were from Newport Beach, and I know those parents. I've had stern conversations with their children and they're going to be punished accordingly," Towersey said. "But that's up to the parents to do that and not up to society to put a bunch of kids on blast."

Towersey said he knows the teens in the picture are not racist.

"It was insensitive that they put up a swastika, but I know the kids in that video and they are not racist," Towersey said.

In their letter, students ask administrators and community members to ensure no student forgets the hate the swastika represents and that all students understand the harm of even the smallest symbols and actions of hatred.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District and local law enforcement launched an investigation following the photo, which has led to interviews with over two dozen students and their families. School officials said they will hold students accountable and are weighing disciplinary action.

"Every step back can and must become an impetus for a giant leap forward," Rabbi Reuven Mintz said.

The district will hold another meeting at Corona Del Mar High School on Thursday night.

[L.A.Justice]

Parents, of those students, should talk with their children about the evils of the Nazi regime...

Those students should not be suspended. They did the Nazi thing at someone's home...Not at school...Not at some Friday night football game...

Those kids got drunk and did something stupid...

Student Max Drakeford blamed "all of us" for this incident...At the meeting...That sounds silly...

Students Gina Leanna blamed "privilege" for this kind of incident...Really...What a silly statement...She thinks that some kid, from some rich family, has a very good chance of being a bigot...

Newport Harbor High School (Last school year)

White 58.3% Hispanic 35.1% Asian 2.7% Black 0.7%

35.7% of students qualify for free or reduced meals program... I got the information from www.ed-data.org

Newport Harbor High is not too away from UC Irvine...

Misty May-Treanor, a beach volleyball legend, graduated from that high school...

[Unam Sanctam]

Since the Dems now openly support anti-Semitism, this should be A-OK, right?

[CitizenUSA]

Nazi symbols are offensive but it wasn’t all that long ago that the ALCU fought and won to have Nazis parade through Skokie, a Jewish community. Free speech only exists when people have the right to say something that offends. That said, being free to say what one wants doesn’t protect one from receiving a whole lot of negative vocal feedback in return.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Where the outrage over Che Guevara r-shirts and other commie chic?

[CaliforniaCraftBeer]

Swastika Beer Pong Ping***

***had this been “american flag beer pong” the whole state would be shut down in protest!

[knarf]

waddija' 'spect ?

They're all products of the public school system.

[Fresh Wind]

This environment allowed them all to feel comfortable enough to do that," Drakeford said during the meeting.

There's the problem right there. The students haven't been properly educated by the skool.

Because of poor teaching, they have gotten the mistaken impression that freedom of expression allows them to do or say what they want. It needs to be made clear to them that their freedom is limited to only what their masters allow them to do or say.

Since their skool has failed them, they will be assigned to a free government summer camp where their misunderstandings can be corrected in a happy and healthy environment so that they can become good citizens of the state.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

[WayneLusvardi]

What is the pure opposite of political correctness? Racism?

I guess it never crossed the PC school administrator’s minds that what these young people may be doing is just throwing political incorrectness back into their face. My guess it is a spoof by young students to mock political correctness and has nothing to do with anti-semitism.

Or given all the fake hate crimes, maybe it is a faked fake hate crime?

[NativeSon]

The more a thing is "frowned upon", the more you will see it pop up.

It's not a crime and it doesn't harm anyone (sticks and stones...). It doesn't matter the ideologies of the people, it's the innate drive to resist.

[oincobx]

>>>That said, being free to say what one wants doesn’t protect one from receiving a whole lot of negative vocal feedback in return.

Yes. A similar event here in a Alabama. The father of the girl in this story owns a Toyota dealership. This story cant be good for business.
https://www.al.com//news/2019/03/alabama-high-school-students-filmed-using-racist-slurs.html

[af_vet_1981]

Those students should not be suspended.

Suspend/sanction them for underage drinking.

Students Gina Leanna blamed "privilege" for this kind of incident...Really..

Really; they should know better and behave better.

[eyeamok]

They were just practicing to be good Democrats, shouldn’t they be praised for their allegiance to the Democrat Way of Life??

[hanamizu]

I have no way of entering into the minds of the h.s. students who did that. That said, the swastika is an ancient symbol that has been used for a very long time. You still see it in Japan and in fact it was incorporated into the design of a U.S. Canal Zone stamp. Hitler and the Nazis chose it because it kind of draws you into it.

I’ve had students carve it into desk tops who had no idea of who or what the Nazis were. All they knew was that it was forbidden, kind of cool looking and next to impossible to draw perfectly. Think about the two symbols of evil of the 20th century, the swastika and the hammer & sickle—which one almost calls on you to try and draw it?

The horrors of both symbols need to be taught to students, alas only one will raise talk of kicking a kid out of school. West Point students have been known to wear hammer & sickle shirts without being punished.

[bgill]

Are they registered democrats?

[Roccus]

Use Google Earth

32.67547°N 117.160649°W

Look just to the ENE.

[Don W]

How mice! Everyone has a view of the quad!

[CJ Wolf]

Future Democrat governor in that bunch.

[L.A.Justice]

The horrors of both symbols need to be taught to students, alas only one will raise talk of kicking a kid out of school. West Point students have been known to wear hammer & sickle shirts without being punished.

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Students learn about Nazism during world history class. Maybe they just forgot what they learned.

[hanamizu]

Students learn about Nazism during world history class.

---

Yes, they do. But part of my point is they don’t seem to learn about Communism. They are roughly contemporary, equally horrible, Communism has a much higher body count, and maybe most importantly, is still very much around, while real Nazis are actually pretty rare on the ground.