Haddonfield High is reordering yearbooks after discovering hate symbol in photo

Did a Haddonfield Memorial High School senior know he was using a hate symbol when he flashed an OK sign in the yearbook class photo?

There are starkly different viewpoints in the South Jersey school district, which launched an investigation and reported the incident to police. Some say the district has overreacted to a student playing around.

Meanwhile, the district plans to print new yearbooks, or replace the page, at no extra charge to students. It has urged students to return the yearbooks, originally distributed last month, for recycling.

The OK sign, traditionally seen as an indication of agreement or well-being, has been identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate symbol, representing “white power.” The district acknowledged that the gesture has been used in a variety of ways but most recently has been associated with hate groups.

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”We are not assuming intent, but feel strongly this should be proactively addressed. ... We can all learn and grow from this so no one mistakenly uses this gesture,” principal Tammy K. McHale wrote in a letter to parents earlier this month. She added that the school “finds the potential for overt racism offensive and intolerable; such acts have no place in our community and certainly not within our annual yearbook.”

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According to a 2017 article by the Anti-Defamation League, use of the upside OK sign began on the website 4chan as a “hoax campaign” to troll liberals. Last year, the ADL added the gesture to its hate symbols database, noting that it has started “being used in some circles as a sincere expression of white supremacy.”

Last December, military investigators concluded that hand gestures flashed by West Point cadets and Naval Academy midshipmen during the televised Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia were not racist signals. The Navy described the behavior as “sophomoric.”

Civil rights groups applauded Haddonfield for taking swift action, regardless of the motive. The district apologized to parents and students in its letter and provided a list of hate symbols.

”They took it seriously,” said Shira Goodman, regional director of the ADL Philadelphia.

Said Lloyd D. Henderson, president of the Camden County East branch of the NAACP: “It’s a racist symbol. I’m glad that Haddonfield took the immediate, appropriate steps in correcting it.”

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Haddonfield School District superintendent Chuck Klaus on Monday said the district conducted a thorough investigation, interviewed students, and determined that there was no racist intent. Police found no evidence that it was a bias incident, he said.

“There was no evidence to suggest it was a white power sign,” McHale said. No disciplinary action was taken against the student, she said.

The photo was discovered by a teacher after the district distributed about 458 copies of the yearbook in June, Klaus said. The yearbook cost $80. The photo with the OK sign will be replaced with another class photo taken in October, he said. The final cost will be determined by how many books are reordered.

Because students, especially the school’s 218 seniors, may have already had their yearbooks signed by classmates as a keepsake, Klaus said they have the option to replace just that page. The majority have made that decision, he said.

Some students and parents have suggested the gesture was part of something called the circle game, made popular on the now-canceled Fox show Malcolm in the Middle, wherein someone makes a circle gesture with their fingers and if another person looks at it, the instigator gets to punch them.

Even if the gesture were intended as a prank, school officials in the predominantly white district said it was a teaching moment to educate students about the sign’s multiple meanings. Students organized a Black Lives Matters protest last month, and Haddonfield held a town hall meeting on racism.

Haddonfield Memorial High, which enrolls about 850 students in grades 9-12, is 90% white, 4.2% Asian, 2.2% Hispanic, 1.5% Black, and 1.9% multiracial, and has had racial problems in the past. Klaus said the yearbook also would be subject to new production rules and more careful review.

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Haddonfield made national headlines in May 2018 after the district canceled the remainder of the boys’ lacrosse season after a player hurled a racial slur against a Black female athlete visiting from another school. The school’s investigation could not identify the player accused of making the remark.

The district implemented a corrective plan that included diversity training, “No Place for Hate” programs with the ADL, and a peer bias group.

“We’re really working hard to make this better. We’re not there yet, obviously,” Klaus said.