Tuesday afternoon, the school decided to use this incident to do what they do best, teach. The photo that stirred so much controversy shows two members of the Greely High School girls basketball team giving a Nazi salute, because they'd been referring to one of their teammates as Hitler.
Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld, Shaarey Tphiloh Temple: "Seeing a picture like that, it's a source of great concern to me and to people who I know to see a picture of two girls on the basketball team, who I'm sure are very accomplished and good people, raising their arms in a Hilter salute which is a symbol of hatred."
The two girls were disciplined after the school found out about the photo.
Dan McKeone, Greely H.S. principal: "The girls have very much owned what they've done. And they've been working very hard."
Principal Dan McKeone took it a step further, holding an assembly today for his high school students. Brandon Baldwin, who heads the AG's civil rights team project, told students he's read comments online from people who think this was a harmless joke.
Brandon Baldwin: "Tor those of you who think that this whole thing is being blown out of proportion, or that we are some politically correct society where you can't say or do anything, or that the media has got the story all wrong... it does not change the fact that some people have been affected by this."
Students also weighed in with a statement written, in part, by members of the girls basketball team.
"We recognize that this could be especially painful for the Jewish members of our community. We deeply regret these incidents and the students involved realize their actions were hurtful."
This comes on the heels of two juveniles being arrested two months ago for painting anti-Semitic symbols and other graffiti on Greely Middle School.
The executive director of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine says this is not an isolated incident. Emily Chaleef says this incident has prompted a number of people to post anti-Semitic and prejudicial comments. Greely's principal and others say such comments are unacceptable.
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