Photo shows New Jersey students playing "Jews vs. Nazis" drinking game
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Police are investigating a photo posted on social media that showed students from a New Jersey high school playing a "Jews vs. Nazis" drinking game.
The photo was shared on Snapchat, where one Princeton High School student captured it and wrote about it on her blog. It shows students playing a version of beer pong dubbed "Holocaust Pong" or "Alcoholocaust." Students can be seen pouring beer into two sets of cups that were arranged in the forms of a Star of David and a swastika.
Jamaica Ponder, the 17-year-old student who blogged about the photo, told NJ.com the students were her classmates.
"They are athletes and student leaders," Jamaica said. "They're prominent individuals that everybody knows, captains of sports teams."
On her blog, Jamaica wrote, "Putting the picture on social media means that someone was proud enough of the game to want to show it off. Meaning that they must be trapped in the delusional mindset that making a drinking game based off of the Holocaust is cool. Or funny. Or anything besides insane. Because that's what this is: insanity."
She called it "indefensible."
"You can't make excuses for stuff like this, just like you can't make excuses for the KKK or 9/11 or the slaughter of 6 million people," she wrote. "Some things are just bad, and this is one of them. Maybe you think I'm overreacting, or that I don't know how to take a joke. If this is a joke, if this is supposed to be funny - well then you'll have to excuse me because I simply cannot drink to that."
The Princeton Police Department said Friday morning that they've started an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the photo, NJ.com reported.
Lt. John Bucchere said that possession of alcohol by minors on private property is not a crime.
"However, if there is evidence that someone bought alcohol for minors or provided a place specifically for them to consume it, that is illegal," Bucchere said.
Princeton Superintendent Steve Cochrane said he's deeply upset that students engaged in a drinking game with "clearly anti-Semitic" overtones.
"An incident such as this one, forces us to take a hard look at our efforts in educating our children in the values that may be most important to their success in life," Cochrane said.
He said the district is talking to the students and their families about the photo. There is no word on if the students in the photo will be disciplined.
Jamaica said she contacted the school about the photo before posting it to her blog.
"A couple of people came up to me using profanities, but a lot of people were very kind and I'd say appreciative of what I did," she told NJ.com. "Someone needed to show what exactly is going on when no one's paying attention."
Jamaica's mother, Michelle Tuck-Ponder, told CBS News Radio station WCBS-AM she is extremely proud of her daughter for speaking out.
"She is an amazing kid," Tuck-Ponder said. "She's lost a lot of friends, there's going to be a demonstration at the high school."