Wisconsin students will not be punished for their photo showing the Nazi salute

The photo, which bears the #Barabooproud label, was originally posted to the @GoBaraboo parody account with the following caption: "We even asked the black kid to throw it away." It has since been removed.

In a recent letter to parents and the community, Lori M. Mueller, administrator of the Baraboo School School District, said the district had made the decision after 10 days of review. She said district officials are not sure of the key details surrounding the photo despite their efforts.

"As stated before, we can not know the intentions of the people involved.Besides, because of the rights of students to the first amendment, the district is not in a position to punish the students for their actions," said Mueller in a letter. , that Baraboo School Education Commission Chair Kevin Vodak shared with CNN.

Mueller said, "What we do know is that this image was posted on social media with a comment to create harm."

According to Mueller, the photo was taken last May in front of the Sauk County Courthouse in downtown Baraboo, about 40 km northwest of Madison, while the students and their parents were at home. were gathered to take pictures before the ball. The students in the photo are current and former students of Baraboo High, said the district administrator.

The photo was taken by a parent who is not retained by the school district as a photographer, according to Mueller.

WISN, affiliated with CNN, had previously identified the photographer as Pete Gust. He told station critics took the picture out of context.

Gust says that he asked the students to say goodbye to their parents. "There was no Nazi salute," he said.

Everyone in the photo did not take part in the gesture.

The Twitter page of the Auschwitz Memorial was one of the groups that criticized the photo.

"That's why every day we work to educate," says the organization. posted on social media. "We must explain what is the danger of a hateful ideology.Auschwitz and its gas chambers were at the end of the long process of normalization and accommodation of hatred."

Darran Simon's CNN, Christina Maxouris, Eric Levenson and Artemis Moshtaghian contributed to this report.