{"id":88861,"date":"2025-12-10T07:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88861\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T07:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:50:08","slug":"deeply-disturbing-police-probe-human-swastika-formation-at-san-jose-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88861\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Deeply disturbing\u2019: Police probe \u2018human swastika\u2019 formation at San Jose high school"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police in San Jose are investigating what they are describing as a \u201chuman swastika\u201d incident at a local high school last week, the department said Monday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Friday just before 10 a.m., officers responded to a report of a hate crime that occurred two days earlier at Branham High School. According to police, students shared a photo on social media of a \u201chuman swastika\u201d formation made by students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, state Sen. Dave Cortese released a statement condemning the act, calling it deeply disturbing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cActs of hatred \u2014 no matter where they occur \u2014 have a profound impact on our young people, our families, and our broader community,\u201d Cortese said. \u201cThere is absolutely no place for anti-Semitism, or any form of bigotry, in our schools or in our society.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>State Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, posted about the alleged hate crime on her Facebook page and included a photo of eight students lying down on the football field, forming a swastika. Pellerin said the photo was from the social media post, which included a quote by Adolf Hitler about the annihilation of the Jews.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe alarming rise in antisemitism that we\u2019ve witnessed over the past two years has manifested in a deeply disturbing incident at Branham High School this week,\u201d she wrote on Facebook. \u201cThe actions of students who used their bodies to form a swastika, photographed it, and posted it online with their names and a threatening Hitler quote attached, paint a terrifying picture of the hate plaguing our communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Branham High School principal Beth Silbergeld sent an announcement to students and parents saying the post circulating on social media didn\u2019t reflect the school\u2019s values and was under investigation, according to the school newspaper, the Branham Bear Witness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size:28px\"> \u201cWe need to ask ourselves why these students believed it was ok to do this \u2014 not just the swastika but linking it to extermination of Jews due to \u2018international financial Jews.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>State Sen. Scott Wiener<\/p>\n<p>State Sen. Scott Wiener also decried the incident in a Sunday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DR-FJxWDy51\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">social media post<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe school responded well to this horrific incident,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut we need to ask ourselves why these students believed it was ok to do this \u2014 not just the swastika but linking it to extermination of Jews due to \u2018international financial Jews.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wiener said such language is dangerous.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see lots of rhetoric today, on both right &amp; left, about Jews controlling institutions \u2014 governments, elected officials, financial institutions, media, etc.,\u201d he wrote. \u201cFor millennia, this claim of Jewish control &amp; manipulation has been a pillar of antisemitic demonization, leading to violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco, which also shared the original social media post, said it reached out to school administrators and that the school is open to hearing their recommendations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>San Jose police said the investigation is active and ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police in San Jose are investigating what they are describing as a \u201chuman swastika\u201d incident at a local&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[48251,49485,48535,16643,18912,22170,734,88,90,89,2125,198,28946,9556],"class_list":["post-88861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-adolf-hitler","tag-assemblymember-gail-pellerin","tag-branham-high-school","tag-hate-crimes","tag-high-school-students","tag-jews","tag-law-enforcement","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-police-department","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-sen-dave-cortese","tag-sen-scott-wiener"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}