Students from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, Calif., are under scrutiny after a video surfaced on Monday showing several male students giving the Nazi salute while a Nazi marching song played in the background.
The events in the video, which was first obtained by the Daily Beast apparently took place during an awards ceremony last year.
In the brief video, the students are seen with their arms in the air making the offensive gesture, while a Nazi marching song played for German troops during World War II plays in the background. At least one student could be heard singing along.
According to ABC News, the school district said they only became aware of the incident about four months later, in March of this year, and took “immediate” reaction. What action that was exactly, has not been disclosed, as the Garden Grove Unified School District has declined to say if any of the students have been disciplined, citing federal privacy laws.
“Garden Grove Unified School District and Pacifica High School strongly condemn a video recorded last year of some students who engaged in offensive Nazi-related gestures,” the district said in a statement, according to ABC. “It was not brought to the attention of the administration of Pacifica High School until March of 2019, four months following the banquet, at which time school administrators took immediate action and addressed the situation with all students and families involved.”
The video, the district said, was taken off-campus during a student athletics banquet.
“In response to this unfortunate incident, district and school administrators have reached out to community organizations to provide support that will continue to ensure an anti-bias learning environment and address issues of hate, bias, and exclusion with all staff and students,” the statement added. “Pacifica High School, along with our other district schools, will be working with students, staff, and parents to continue to address these issues in the fall in collaboration with agencies dedicated to anti-bias education.”