Dec. 31 (UPI) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Monday he has approved the termination of all correctional officer cadets who participated in performing a Nazi salute in a class photo.
Justice said in a statement that the terminations were recommended as part of an investigation into the photo by the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety and its Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation to complete its investigation, which came back Dec. 27.
The photo of some 30 cadets of Basic Training Class 18 with their faces blurred performing the salute with the words “Hail Byrd” on the wall behind them surfaced in early December, prompting widespread condemnation and Justice to call for their termination.
Three individuals, including two correctional academy trainers and one of the cadets in the photo, were fired and 34 cadets suspended in the days after the photo was published as the Department of Military Affairs completed its investigation.
“As I said from the beginning, I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class 18 in the strongest possible terms,” Justice said Monday. “I also said that this act needed to result in real consequences — terminations and dismissals.”
According to an executive summary of the investigation, the cadets began performing the Nazi salute during the second or third week of the camp out of a “sign of respect” for an instructor named Byrd who claimed, “she was completely unaware of the historical or racial implications of the gesture and reported it was simply a greeting.”
However, the investigation found that not only was the gesture done with her knowledge but that she “encouraged it, reveled in it,” corrected the behavior of cadets who disagreed, assured others the behavior was acceptable and directed the class to pose for the photo.
“Multiple cadets reported the photo was taken several times due to not everyone participating in the gesture,” the summary said. “Ten of the cadets reported they did not make the gesture until Byrd told them to. These cadets stated that they only did it at that time due to fear of not graduating for disobeying the direction of an instructor.”
The photo was then forwarded to secretarial staff who questioned Byrd about it. She responded the cadets performed the gesture because “I’m a hard-ass like Hitler.”
The summary states that some of the cadets were unaware of the significance of the gesture while others said they were uncomfortable with its use in class and only performed the salute in the picture, but “nonetheless, their conduct, without question, has also resulted in the far-reaching and harmful perceptions that are the antithesis of the values we strive to attain.”
The report concluded that while the gesture and the photograph are “highly offensive and egregious,” the investigation did not find it was motivated to discriminate against any religious or racial group.
“Rather, contributing factors included poor judgment, ignorance, peer pressure and fear of reprisal,” the report said.
Justice said the behavior exhibited by the cadets and trainers is not tolerated by any agency or state government under his stewardship.
“We have a lot of good people in our Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety,” he said. “But this incident was completely unacceptable. Now, we must continue to move forward and work diligently to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
