School system faulted for inadequate response to a Nazi salute incident

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. >> An Alabama school system's “disconcerting” response to complaints from a Jewish student that a teacher had classmates perform a Nazi salute shows a lack of commitment to diversity, an organization that promotes civil and human rights said Friday.

While Mountain Brooks Schools issued a statement saying it was “deeply apologetic for the pain” caused by a lesson that “lacked sensitivity,” the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute questioned actions by the system, which previously ditched a diversity program produced by an organization that combats antiSemitism.

“It is in this light that we find a more recent incident involving the Nazi salute displayed by students in a Mountain Brook classroom particularly disconcerting, as it shows a conspicuous lack of preparation on the part of administrators to discuss, teach and lead in this area,” the city-owned educational institute said in a statement.

A spokesman for the school system, located in a nearly all-White, wealthy suburb of Birmingham, did not immediately return an email message.

In a story first reported by the Birmingham-based Southern Jewish Life, a Jewish student said he was shocked last month when a history teacher at Mountain Brook High School had classmates stand and give a stiff-armed Nazi salute during a lesson on the way symbols change.

The student, Ephraim Tytell, said school officials reprimanded him and told him to apologize to the teacher after he shared a video and photos of the incident on social media. The student said he refused.

The lesson was meant to show how symbols change by demonstrating that something very similar to what's now widely known as a Nazi salute was used before World War II to salute the U.S. flag. Called the “Bellamy Salute,” it was ditched in 1942 for the right-handover-the-heart gesture following the United States' entry into the war.