(JTA) — Several eighth-graders at a Chicago public school were suspended as part of an investigation of anti-Semitic bullying via the online game “Clash of Clans.”
The suspended students from Ogden International School of Chicago were identified as ringleaders and participants in the reported harassment of a 14-year-old Jewish student. Chicago Public Schools spokesman Joel Hood told the Chicago Sun-Times that they were suspended for one to three days.
The Jewish student told his mother several months ago that his classmates showed him photos of ovens and told him to get in, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
In recent weeks, the eighth-graders started a team for the online game called “Jew Incinerator.”
“Heil! Throw Jews into ovens for a cause. We are a friendly group of racists with one goal — put all Jews into an army camp until disposed of,” the team’s introduction read. The students concluded the introduction with “Sieg! Heil! — a Nazi salutation.
In a statement, Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in part, “The principal at Ogden International High School has worked in cooperation with the network and central office to foster a larger community dialog around cultural sensitivity and has taken the appropriate actions to ensure this is a teachable moment for our children.”
The school principal held a forum for parents on May 29, the same day that the eighth-graders made a field trip to the Holocaust museum in Skokie.
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