Baraboo, WI — The teachers at the Wisconsin high school whose students made what appears to be a Nazi salute in a junior prom photo raised money for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
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The teachers’ union at Baraboo High School agreed to donate to the institution after the school district decided that the students would not be disciplined due to their free-speech rights, the Baraboo News Republic reported. The Auschwitz museum was one of the first to level public criticism about the photo, and also the first to offer to help educate the district and the students.
The teachers made up and sold 180 T-shirts in a variety of colors with the message “No room for hate. This classroom. This school. This community. This state. This country. This world.” They raised $2,100.
The staff members all wore their shirts on Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, in a sign of unity.
“I think, as a union, we’re just really supportive of all the efforts that the … community, the county leadership, the city leadership, the district leadership is doing to try to — to try to make all of this right,” Kari Nelson, president of the Baraboo Education Association, told the newspaper. “We just hope this is another piece of the puzzle.”
They plan to sell more shirts to the general community.
The photo was taken in the spring and involves about 50 students. It was posted originally in a private online album tagged #BarabooProud. It was taken by the parent of a student in the class.
Good for them.
The Holocaust Museum should refuse the donation until the students are made accountable for their actions.