Nazi message with swastikas found in Georgia high school on eve of 9/11
Some people in the local Jewish community are upset after an antisemitic message was found inside the boys bathroom at Alan C. Pope High School in Georgia.
The misspelled phrase “Hail [sic] Hitler” was plastered above two swastikas on Thursday, Fox 5 reported.
“On the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I can’t believe THIS is what we are discussing but last night our students came home talking about destruction of property at our school thanks to a TikTok trend that has infiltrated Pope, but also we saw very disturbing pictures of swastikas and messages of hate painted on walls,” the school’s Parent, Teacher and Student Association (PTSA) said on Facebook.
The defacement occurred in between two Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, local Rabbi Larry Sernovitz told 11 Alive.
Sernovitz went to Pope High School the next day to talk with the school’s principal and students, the outlet reported.
Several of the students who defaced the bathroom have been identified, Sernovitz told 11 Alive.
“Anytime students misbehave, and in this case disrespect, individual students, people groups, and their school, we find it unacceptable,” a Cobb County school district spokesperson told Fox 5 in a statement. “The principal has engaged with community groups who have been affected by this student behavior, and all applicable District policy and law will be applied.”
Sernovitz thinks the school should do more.
“The statement lacked any specificity, which was the challenge in the whole thing,” he told Fox 5. “This was an antisemitic hate crime and what they failed to put in that note to the community was exactly that.”
“Many will call these teenage pranks, but these are hate crimes - and destroying property and stealing from your school is a felony,” Alan C. Pope High School’s PTSA said on Facebook. “We stand together with ALL of our families and will not tolerate or accept hate.”
McClatchy News reached out to the school district on Monday but has not heard back.
This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 1:58 PM with the headline "Nazi message with swastikas found in Georgia high school on eve of 9/11."
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