A Long Island school district says it is investigating pictures taken at an off-campus house party over the weekend that appear to show high school students wearing t-shirts with swastikas on them.
The Commack School District said in a statement Wednesday that it learned of the photos, which had been posted on social media, Monday. One photo shows a swastika scrawled in black marker on the red T-shirts of two students playing beer pong.
"Auschwitz," the infamous concentration camp, is written on the shirts.
School district officials say the photographs were not connected to any school-sponsored activity and because of that, it is limited in what in can do to address the matter.
"However, the District is taking all necessary steps to investigate and will impose discipline related to this where legally permissible," the statement from the district said.
Officials say the district provides ongoing programs to reinforce student sensitivity and awareness, and it will offer counseling to those involved in or upset by the tees. They reiterated the anti-Semitic shirts worn by the high school students do not represent the overarching student body at Commack High School.
The anti-Semitic shirts are the latest in a string of clothing-related issues at the high school. In September, the district was investigating after photos were tweeted that showed six students wearing T-shirts that spelled out the word "rape." The photos were taken at the high school’s varsity field, moments after seniors had posed for their class photo, according to school officials.
Less than a week later, the district was looking into a new photograph that it said "depicts a word that is in clear violation of our Code of Conduct."
