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Maryland High School Students Wear Nazi Costumes, Banned by Principal

March 4, 1963
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Black “stormtrooper” uniforms have been banned at Boonsboro High School by school authorities because students sought to dress like the thugs of Nazi Germany. It became a fad among the students to render Nazi salutes and shout “Heil Hitler!” Dr. J. Willard Newton, school principal, said that a group of students began wearing black shirts and black trousers to class.

The adulation of Nazism at the school reached such proportions that Dr. Newton this weekend told the 750 students body that Nazi-like uniforms would be prohibited. Eleven students defied the ban and were barred from classes. One tenth-grade student was suspended for five days, another was barred from classes until school officials can confer with his parents, and disciplinary action is pending against four others. It was reported that swastikas have been scrawled on blackboards. There was talk among students of acquiring authentic Nazi emblems brought back from Europe as war souvenirs by the fathers of some of them, along with German bayonets and pistols.

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