Anti-Semitic behavior revealed in video at Pacifica High School

Some members of the Pacifica High School water polo team were filmed giving a Nazi salute and singing a Nazi marching song at an off-campus sports banquet. Photo by KALI HOFFMAN, Photo Editor

Another Orange County high school is in the public eye after a video was released on Aug. 19 depicting members of the boys’ water polo team from Pacifica High School engaging in anti-Semitic behavior. This comes after students from Newport Harbor High School formed a swastika from red solo cups at a party and saluted it in March 2019. 

The video, which was uploaded on Twitter, shows some members of the water polo team singing Nazi marching song “Erika” and giving the Nazi salutes. “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,” an Aug. 19 statement from the Garden Grove Unified School District’s website read. The school district has reopened and widened the scope of the investigation into the students involved in the video. 

“School administrators addressed the situation with the students shown in the video and their families, but did not involve the larger school or district community in addressing the issue,” the statement said. “With support from the district office, which was unaware of the video until a few days ago, and resources from organizations dedicated to combating hate and bias in schools, Pacifica High School administration realizes it did not respond to the incident with the gravity it deserved.” 

Alyssa Berry, a sophomore environmental science and policy major, played water polo for four years at Pacifica High School. When she first saw the video after its release, she wasn’t shocked by its content. “I wasn’t very surprised having known how the boys’ team was,” Berry said. “There was always one or two guys on the team who found Nazi jokes funny.” Pete Simi, a sociology professor and expert on extremist groups, said that “this isn’t something new for Orange County,” as the area has a history of white supremacist activity. 

The Rise Above Movement, an active white supremacist group is centered in Orange County. The city of Anaheim was once nicknamed “Klanaheim,” according to Simi, because of a large presence of Ku Klux Klan members. The number of hate groups in the United States has grown in recent years. There were 1,020 active groups in 2018 compared to 784 in 2014, according to a February 2019 study conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The rise in white supremacists groups has been sparked by the presidential election of Donald Trump, according to Simi, who said that young people could easily be confused by “the wrong messages.” “We see for the first time in a long time white supremacist really outwardly identifying with the president of the United States,” Simi said. “That is having a larger impact on people. There is kind of a mainstreaming of hatred and bigotry.” 

The video, which was filmed in Nov. 2018, was not brought to the administration until March 2019, according to the school district. Although the investigation has been reopened, talking to the students involved in anti-Semitic acts is not enough, Simi said. 

“We need to have a better idea of what these students were doing and what drove them to do what they did, and how committed and involved are they to these beliefs,” Simi said. “The only way to help is by asking those kinds of questions and doing a pretty deep dive investigation.” In addition to an investigation, Simi said that communication with the community is needed. 

“Schools are a community and a portion of the community engaged in behavior that is clearly a violation of any code of conduct,” Simi said. “There should have been an acknowledgement to the larger community because there is this problem; we want to address it and be proactive.