A Nazi Salute Has No Place at Graduation—Or Anywhere

To the girl who gave a Nazi salute at (Skyline HS) graduation and to the people who raised her:

You stood before your classmates, their families, teachers, and members of this community—and you made a choice. You raised your arm in a gesture that symbolizes one of the darkest chapters in human history. A gesture of genocide. Of fascism. Of white supremacy.

You did this during a high school graduation ceremony—a moment meant to honor hard work, celebrate resilience, and mark the beginning of a hopeful future.

Make no mistake: your gesture was not harmless. It was not edgy. It was not provocative. It was a slap in the face to every Jewish student. Every Black student. Every immigrant. Every LGBTQ+ student. Every family who has ever known fear, discrimination, or violence.

You didn’t simply express an opinion. You sent a message—loud and clear—that some of your classmates don’t belong. That some lives, in your eyes, matter less than yours.

What you did was not bold. It was cowardly. It takes no strength to mimic hate. No courage to mock the memory of millions murdered. You desecrated a milestone—not just your own, but your peers’—and turned it into a spectacle of cruelty. And for what? Attention? Approval from the darkest corners of the internet? A fleeting moment of superiority built on the suffering of others?

Your classmates deserved better. They deserved to feel proud, safe, and respected. Instead, many walked away feeling shaken, angry, and dehumanized. You didn’t just raise your arm. You lowered the bar for what this community will tolerate.

And to your parents: if you’re wondering where she learned this—look in the mirror. Hate is not instinctive. It is taught. It is modeled. It is allowed to grow in silence, in sarcasm, in the subtle cues that whisper, “You’re better than them.”

No one is born knowing how to dehumanize another person. That kind of thinking comes from somewhere.

Let’s be very clear: a Nazi salute is not a belief. It is not a political stance. It is not protected speech worth defending under the guise of free expression. It is a symbol of death and domination. Of murder, oppression, and supremacy. If we begin to excuse fascism as just another point of view, we risk becoming complicit in its return.

This is not a debate about differing opinions. It is a question of right and wrong, of human dignity versus dehumanization, of remembering history versus repeating it.

And if this town has any conscience left, it will not meet your actions with silence or excuses. It will not look the other way. It will call your gesture what it was: an act of hate.

We all saw it. And we must not forget it.

Jackie Masella
Warren County, VA

Editor note: A comment from the Superintendent regarding Friday’s commencement:

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