Tennessee Middle School Yearbook Shows Students Dressed As Nazis
Middle school students in Germantown, Tennessee dressed up as Nazis for a school project. Image by facebook
By Aiden Pink May 3, 2017
A Tennessee school district is investigating how a picture of two students dressed up as Nazis ended up in a school yearbook.
The yearbook at Houston Middle School in Germantown, outside Memphis, showed two students wearing Hitler-type mustaches and hats with swastikas as part of a class called “Facing History and Ourselves” that covers the Holocaust. But the yearbook does not provide any context for the picture, leading to confusion from parents.
“I am horrified that children at HMS were dressed as Nazis and Hitler and doubly horrified it was chosen for the yearbook,” one parent wrote on Facebook.
“We apologize that the yearbook picture may have offended anyone or has caused misunderstanding of our intent,” school principal Liz Diaz wrote in a statement. “As a matter of fact, this class and our annual Days of Diversity event are in place to help teach our students the importance and appreciation of our diverse world. Houston Middle celebrates diversity.”
The designers of the Facing History and Ourselves curriculum discourage teachers from having students role play the Holocaust, local TV station WMC reported.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter at @aidenpink.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
