Indiana School Officials Investigate Soccer Team After ‘Sickening’ Photo of Nazi Salute

Zionsville, Indiana school officials are investigating a photo showing students at Zionsville Community High School appearing to give Nazi salutes in a photo that surfaced on social media.

According to the Indianapolis Star, the photo first surfaced on Instagram, with parents, staff and faculty members confirming the image’s authenticity in an email written by Zionsville Superintendent Scott Robinson. A student sent the photo to a teacher, who then forwarded it to Robinson.

Robinson called the photo “sickening” and “beyond offensive to students, staff, parents, extended family members and to an inestimable number of people in the wider world.”

“Our school community’s efforts to foster cultural understanding will proceed, though they are set back mightily by this repugnant image,” Robinson wrote.

Robinson said there will be an investigation, but did not say what punishment the students could face.

The photo shows 14 students, 10 of whom appear to have their arms raised in the Nazi salute. Many of the students are wearing jerseys for the indoor soccer team called the Rumblin’ Bumblers. One student is wearing a Zionsville school jersey. Fox59 reports that the original Instagram caption read, “Rumblin bumblers isn’t just a indoor soccer team, we are a cultural phenomenon.”

The IndyStar reports that the Rumblin’ Bumblers played at an indoor soccer facility in Carmel, Indiana. Although the team was mentioned in the 2018 Zionsville high school yearbook, it is not directly tied to the school.

On Friday, a Weebly page that appears to be for the Rumblin’ Bumblers was taken down. According to the IndyStar, the page showed offensive nicknames for players and included racist language referring to an opponent. One of the players was nicknamed “Judenschlau,” or “clever Jew” in German. The IndyStar notes that it is not clear if the site was made by the team.

This is the latest racist or anti-Semitic incident in the Indianapolis region. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day last year, Noblesville Schools said it was “addressing the issue” after a video of a high school student wearing a Nazi flag and shouting racial slurs surfaced on social media.

In November 2018, the Baraboo School District in Wisconsin came under fire after a photo of high school boys giving the Nazi salute outside a prom went viral. According the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the school district chose not to punish the students, citing their First Amendment rights. The district administrator did apologize, saying the photo was “rightly been described as hateful, frightening and disappointing.”

Photo credit: Zionsville Community High School