A New Jersey high school student upset that students were playing "Jews vs. Nazis" beer pong posted photos online showing her classmates playing the drinking game.
Jamaica Ponder posted photos of students playing the game and arranging cups into the shapes of the Star of David and swastika in a blog post Wednesday after classmates began sharing the photos on Snapchat earlier in the week.
Ponder said she decided to post the photos because it would have been "ridiculous" for her not to call out the tasteless game.
"Pardon me if I don’t find that to be hilarious," she wrote. "The real joke here is that these kids weren’t only insensitive enough to play the game, but also silly enough to post it on Snapchat and leave it there long enough for me, and several others, to take a screenshot."
She added, "I'm not even Jewish and I'm still offended."
Ponder said Friday that after she posted the images, students begged her to take the photos but she refused. She said leaving the images up was the the right thing to do.
"I'm not going to lie, I definitely consider doing so because I know these kids and I didn't want to cause myself any problems at school," she said. "But I couldn't bring myself to do it."
Princeton Schools Superintendent Steve Cochrane said in a statement Friday that he was "deeply upset" that students played the game, which he said had "clearly anti-Semitic overtones."
Local
District officials are also meeting with parents and students over the game.
"An incident such as this one, forces us to take a hard look at our efforts in educating our children in the values that may be most important to their success in life," Cochrane said.
Some students -- including Jewish ones -- said Friday they weren't very offended by the game.
"This is the sort of thing that could happen at any high school," said Jeremy Cohen.
Other students said that some of the students pictured and had helped set up the game.
"There's a very big difference between actually being a Nazi or anti-Semitic on purpose and being stupid and drunk in a basement," said Casey Webb, another Princeton High student.
Ponder's mother, however, said she hopes that her daughter's blog post sends a message.
"My hope is parents will stop saying 'Boys wil be boys' and stop saying 'It's a rite of passage,'" she said.
