ADL Mountain States Director Scott Levin
BOULDER — At least five high school students in Colorado were expelled for their participation in a Nazi-themed group on Facebook, which called for killing Jews and black people.
The students from Boulder Valley High School, as well as about 10 other students from high schools in the area, participated in the “Fourth Reich’s Official Group Chat,” Boulder Police announced last week.
The group was uncovered last month after the suicide of a member who was a student at the Boulder Preparatory charter school, who took his own life “to show his allegiance to the Nazi party and the killing of Jewish people,” according to a police report cited by the Boulder Daily Camera.
The group talked about “killing all Jews and niggers,” and referred to “the final solution” and “white power.”
In a statement provided to the Intermountain Jewish News this week, Scott Levin, the ADL’s mountain states regional director, said the organization was “extremely troubled” to hear of the Fourth Reich chat group, “where they took on titles from Hitler’s SS, and posted about killing Jews, African Americans and Mexicans. We are heartened by the swift response of both the Boulder Police Department and the Boulder Valley School District.
“While police found no credible threat sufficient to make an arrest, this incident should not be dismissed as one student reportedly attempted to do by saying they were ‘only joking around,’” Levin said.
“Words matter. Hateful rhetoric is becoming all too acceptable. Language and attitudes once thought to be no longer acceptable are again prevalent in the media, workplace and even schools. We must all redouble our efforts to show respect for one another and to demonstrate there is no room in Colorado for such hate.”
Boulder Police last week decided not to press charges against any of the students, according to the Camera newspaper, saying that there was “no evidence or documentation to support there being any credible threat,” according to the police report.
