`Jews vs Nazis’ Beer Pong Played by Group of Princeton High Students

beer pong

A group of students at Princeton High School played a game of “Jews vs. Nazis” beer pong in the basement of a Princeton home recently, and pictures of the game have spread on social media. Some parents and students have expressed outrage over the game, and one student has written a blog post about it.

“Jews vs. Nazis beer pong”  is the same as regular beer pong, except cups are arranged in the shape of a swastika and a Star of David. The “Jews” are allowed to hide one of their cups as the “Anne Frank” cup and the “Nazis” are allowed to “Auschwitz” their oppo­nents, mean­ing that one of their play­ers must tem­porar­ily sit out.

The photo of the Princeton High students playing the game, sent to Planet Princeton by a handful of upset parents Wednesday night, shows seven students standing around a table with the red cups and a few dozen cans of Coors Light. Parents and students have identified some of the students in the photo as athletes and Teen PEP peer leaders at the school. Planet Princeton has blurred the faces in the photo because the people pictured are minors. Students say the under-age drinking games are a common occurrence on weekends, sometimes without the knowledge of parents, but often with their knowledge and consent.

A fellow student who was not at the game, but knows the people in the photo and saw the picture on social media, wrote a blog post Wednesday that has spread on Facebook. Jamaica Ponder, a junior at the school, wrote a piece expressing her dismay about the game. Her post was shared more than 750 times on Facebook as of early Thursday morning.

Ponder told Planet Princeton Wednesday that she first saw the photo on Snapchat and said it was still up about 24 hours after it was posted.

“I thought it was something people should see,” she said. “People should know this is going on in Princeton. I’m appalled that something like this would happen in our town. We have a large and prominent Jewish community.  We pride ourselves on being open-minded, yet people are playing this game in the basement of a Princeton house.”

Ponder said even if the game is a joke, the punchline isn’t funny.

“I guess the punchline would be: genocide. Pardon me if I don’t find that to be hilarious,” she wrote on her blog. “The real joke here is that these kids weren’t only insensitive enough to play the game, but also silly enough to post it on Snapchat…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.”

Ponder also expressed shock that Jewish students were playing the game. She said she has spoken to everyone pictured in the photo after she posted the story on her blog, and the Jewish students told her they were too afraid to speak up even though they felt uncomfortable with the game.

Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochrane and School Board President Andrea Spalla have not responded to an email from Planet Princeton yet regarding the incident.

At least one of the students in the picture is the son of an employee for the school district.

After the story was posted, an anonymous person posted in the comment section of the story a racial slur against Ponder, who is black. The comment was made from the school district’s IP address, and the comment was deleted by Planet Princeton because of its offensive nature.

The Jews vs. Nazis beer pong game started to become a trend at high schools and colleges across the country around 2013. In some versions of the game, the players are supposed to say as many racist things as possible while playing. The Anti-Defamation League has called the beer pong game “profoundly offensive,” and has written stories about the issue, saying said the game under­scores the crit­i­cal need for Holo­caust edu­ca­tion.

164 Comments

  1. How awful to be a teenager in the era of social media. You can’t even do dumb stuff in a private home without it being shared with the world.

    1. Let the witch hunt begin! Obviously the game is insensitive, to put it mildly, but essentially you’re dealing here with what amounts to a very tasteless joke, rather than actual anti-semitism. Their biggest mistake perhaps was photographing it and broadcasting it.beyond the borders of the basement in which it took place. Now that their moment of typical teen idiocy has been deemed “newsworthy” they’re hosed.

      1. You think they didn’t know it was going to a large audience of other kids? THAT is the problem; it was being boasted about, like “we’re cool, and if you criticize us, you’re not”.

        1. No, I assume they knew it was going to be seen by other kids. The problem is that they did not foresee that it would somehow end up a headline on Planet Princeton, which, oddly in my view, considers the fact that a bunch of high-school knuckleheads might drink beer and traffic in tasteless “humor” news of some sort. I suppose, though, that the number of comments here could, by some calculus, be argued to validate the decision to run what is essentially a high-school gossip item.

          1. My kids aren’t high school aged, but I consider it news I’d like to hear that some parents are so spectacularly bad in their supervision, much less instillation of values. Pitfalls and people to stay away from are things I want to know about. PP’s simply speeding up the grapevine and making sure this doesn’t get swept under the rug as “boys will be boys.”

            1. That sounds reasonable in a very superficial sort of way, but I am curious which aspect of this incident you consider valuable “news.” That teens drink beer in Princeton? That some parents may look the other way? That politically incorrect, even outright offensive, stuff may go on? Really? This is news to you? I’m amazed at how many people are expressing “shock” at this incident. Am I the only one who ever went to high school? Brace yourself for upcoming exposes on ill-advised games of truth-or-dare and strip poker or maybe even–gasp–pot smoking in the woods at lunch. You don’t even want to know what sometimes happens in the backseats of cars…

              1. Smoking pot, having sex, and drinking aren’t intrinsically reprehensible behaviors when they’re committed by anyone on the planet. See the difference?

                1. People, what with being human and all, exhibit intrinsically reprehensible behavior all the time without ending up in the news. I don’t recall seeing “Area Man Cheats on Wife” or “Senior Citizen Tells Racist Joke” or “Woman Kicks Dog” or “Jerk Hits Car in Parking Lot, Fails to Leave Note.” I mean that headline up there reads to me like something out of the Onion. Moreover, what is the value to any of us here? There is nothing actionable in this story at all: You don’t know who to “stay away from” because nobody’s identified (and obviously they should not be). Seems like a nice platform for a lot of people to get in high dudgeon about the perceived judgement and values (and trouser selection) of others, but that’s about it. Not seeing the community benefit here.

                  1. Perceived judgment and values of others. Hm. I think one can perceive those things rather accurately when it’s a hoot to “Auschwitz” one’s Jewish opponents. If people hold these views, and we all believe in free speech, they shouldn’t be surprised when their “look how cool we are” stunt on Snapchat takes a turn. They’re free to do it, and the rest of us are free to excoriate it if we feel it has no part in a civilized community.

                    Do you think that criticizing Donald Trump for his many and sundry insensitivities has no community benefit, too? Because I see a pretty straight line from privileged bigoted behavior in youths to privileged bigoted behavior in adults. One, maybe, can be changed with a spotlight shined on it.

                  2. Huh? You don’t think that these kids will – and should – learn that the community they live in deems this behavior reprehensible? And that’s not valuable to them, and the community?

          2. Right, well, I think this right here is why it is a story, and why it is spreading to other newspapers around the state and country. Right or wrong, the story has the taint of entitlement. “The parents didn’t think it was a problem to host drinking parties, the kids didn’t care about drinking ag laws – they let their kids bring tons of beer into their large finished basements. The kids didn’t care about taste, or anti-semitism, or really, the rules of common decency, to play jews vs. nazis, and they certainly didn’t care what others thought, so they bragged about it online….they didn’t care about these things because they don’t really have to worry about much…rules don’t really apply to them….”

            Now, of course, that may not be the case. These kids, their parents, everyone involved might feel very differently about this incident, but this is part of the reason this story is taking hold.

            And you are supporting that narrative by insisting there is nothing to see here, that they in fact should be expected to do things like this- that essentially, we should as a community, turn a blind eye to things a blind man can see are wrong. Why? Because they are kids? Or because they are Princeton kids?

    2. The people who were there doing the dumb stuff are the ones who shared it with the world via snapchat.

      1. Only one of them posted it to SnapChat, likely, and he probably thought it would quickly disappear.

        What I meant is it’s a whole new world for kids. When I was a teenager, someone would have had to take the photo, go get the film developed and deliver the prints to the newspaper. The editor would have thrown them in the garbage or, if he knew the kids’ parents, call them and tell them to tell their kids to stop being stupid.

        Now, with the 24-hour social media outrage machine, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were to make national news. Eventually, we’ll raise an entire generation of automatons who are afraid of doing, well, anything because they know their every action is being filmed and critiqued.

        1. When you were a kid, did you mock genocide for the purposes of alcohol-driven entertainment? Really? This is not Mel Brooks with “The Producers.” On the face of the situation, these are – and I say this without knowing who the kids or parents are – brats with no sense of respect or proprietary, who based on the massive beer consumption in the rec room alone, count on Mommy and Daddy to bail them out if things go pear-shaped.

          This is way beyond normal teen screwups. And it’s shocking and dismaying how the comments on Jamaica Ponder’s original post all skew to “aw, the poor kids.” They obviously need consequences thrown their way, especially since mom and dad are at best asleep at the switch.

          1. I didn’t, but I have said and done a few things which I realized later were stupid and insensitive. I agree that their parents should have a word with them, but the involvement of the general public will not do anything to help them or the community as a whole.

            1. In this situation I have to disagree. “Jews vs. Nazis” didn’t happen in a vacuum. For this even to have taken place, there’s something going on in the larger community that warrants a serious conversation. I don’t want my kids to grow up with an attitude of no harm, no foul – and I’ve also certainly said my share of things I’ve regretted later.

              It’s amazing to me how so many people commenting on the Imani Perry situation on Planet Princeton stated that it was at least useful to spark a conversation about racial injustice, but here, when you’re dealing with joking about mass murder based on religion/ethnicity, it’s pretty much considered “boys will be boys.” Why is that? The actual injustice against any group can’t happen absent the tacit approval of the community beforehand.

        2. While I think I understand your general point about the often times absurd power of social media, I have to ask – is it a bad thing that social media might discourage kids from playing jews vs. nazis beer pong for fear of social shaming? I think that might be a feature, not a bug.

          Eventually, maybe we’ll raise an entire generation of thoughtful people who wouldn’t think to mock genocide by associating it with a drinking game. If that reality is caused by nothing more than a self serving fear of social ridicule on the inter webs, so be it. Would be better if they came to that knowledge though careful consideration of the subject, and their own humanity, but I guess we take what we can get.

          1. I don’t think that social media will make kids more thoughtful, it will make them suspicious and to avoid a camera or check their phones at the door.

        3. I don’t know if you know how Snapchat works, but once you post something
          on your story it’s there for 24 hours for all your friends to see and Screenshot as they please. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  2. Where are the parents supervising their kids. This is the true self entitled Princeton.

  3. As offensive as it may be that parents have failed to instill sensitivity into High School age children, absolutely no notice was taken these children were consuming alcohol, which as I recall is illegal.

    When parents “look the other way” anything can, and does, happen. The parents of these neglected children should be ashamed of themselves, as this was not an isolated, single failure in parenting, but a series of failures.

    Underage drinking, insensitivity to the holocaust, and then being proud enough of the event to post images on social media. Adults allowed this to take place, but it is the children who will be shamed.

  4. I will have to agree with the comments that real underlying issue is the lack of parental supervision and underage drinking. This game is guilty of promoting bad taste, not antisemitism.

    Here’s a big news flash to all the other keyboard savvy “bloggers”, especially the younger generation of know-it-all’s who got a trophy just for participating in a sport and their life revolves around how many “likes” they can get on their narcissistic posts…there’s always going to be something that you find offensive in life. You can go cry about it in your “safe space”, or you can ignore it because in the totality of the circumstances, it doesn’t effect your life in anyway. Do these kids playing games in a basement effect your daily life? Do any of these comments interfere with your life so much that you can’t continue to live the way you were before you read them?

    1. Cheapening the Holocaust into drunken teen entertainment certainly has the ability to impact my life as these kids grow up – so yes, it does affect me and mine “in the totality of the circumstances.”

      1. How does it “certainly” have the “ability” to impact your and your’s life as “these kids grow up”?

        I assume that you are in tune with popular culture and know that there was a show called “Hogan’s Heroes” that was a comedy. Did that “cheapen” the POWs during World War II for you? Or how about the film “Inglourious Basterds”? (and if you claim you haven’t, then please do a little search on both).

        1. If memory serves, “Inglourious Basterds” focused on Nazi hunters, and “Hogan’s Heroes” never made a drinking game out of Anne Frank having been in hiding. Kids who grow up thinking genocide is party material, who will one day be adults making real decisions in society… yes, that affects us all, and I choose not to stick my head in the sand about it.

          They’re free to say whatever they want (do, another matter, at least in terms of underage drinking). The rest of us are also free to call out odious behavior – if we have the courage of our convictions to do so.

    2. Swastikas, Stars of David, Auschwitz, Anne Frank. Yet you claim the game is not antisemitic? You are as bad as those kids. You may be raising a kid just like them some day. God help us all.

  5. Highly disturbing. Lack of parental supervision and underage drinking in a home situation is bad enough. But the poor judgement of all the participants, and likelihood of peer intimidation resulting from this game, are simply not acceptable. There needs to be a consequence from the school if these students can be identified.

    1. And the comments from people feeling sorry for students because they’ve been outed is also disturbing. So it’s okay to be prejudiced and intimidate people who may not agree with you AS LONG AS YOU DON’T GET CAUGHT? Not a good message at all.

      1. The social media post shows a society that forces kids to become adults way too soon. Sad that you can’t see that & find it in your heart to understand,

        1. I don’t understand what you mean by “forces kids to become adults way too soon.” I do not agree that teaching 14-15 year olds about the Holocaust with a good curriculum and engaged teachers is detrimental to them. If they watch nightly news or read the newspaper or get news online they are exposed to all sorts of horrific information, without the structure and support and context the classroom can provide.

          I understand that the teenage brain poses issues with impulse control since the prefrontal cortex it is not fully developed, but learning about history in school does not create a situation (or an excuse) for kids to behave in such an inappropriate manner. It is insensitive and disrespectful to those who died in the Holocaust and to those who lost people in the Holocaust. Whereas it does not mean that every child who participated or who witnessed their classmates making light over the murder of six million Jews (and many other millions of other people) and did not speak up against it lack morals and values and are anti-semitic, it may be the case for some of them.

        2. The kids were not given a beer. They TOOK a beer. You will excuse any behavior, even when it involves Nazism, parental absenteeism & drunken driving, won’t you? Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Next thing you’ll tell me that “we” handed some murderer a knife & someone got stabbed somehow. No, People must be responsible for their own actions.

    2. Why is this an issue for the school? It didn’t occur at the school, it is an issue for the parents. For the athletes, there are rules for drugs and behavior so maybe they should be removed from their teams. Unfortunately, some of these kids are highly performing athletes and it may impact their college recruitment.

      1. Well they WERE athletes. And athletes are supposed to be role models. I doubt that a photo got onto Snapchat without them all having been aware of it.

        1. Do you really think the school is going to undermine these kids? If you know them, you will know who their parents are. There is no way that the district is going to discipline any of these kids. This school district tries to sweep any bad publicity under the rug. We need more kids to play on the Stanford Soccer team (cynical).

          1. Exactly. The parents will not be arrested or fined. The kids will not have to do any probation for their hate crime. Everyone will want to ignore the underlying problems — the apparently anti-Semitism is considered funny among privileged PHS athletes & that kids are drinking and driving, risking the serious injuries or deaths of others after laughing at the murder of Anne Frank, who was herself killed just because she was Jewish. “Oh, let’s move on to another topic. Haven’t you got anything else to talk about? Please stop publicizing this — I need to protect my property value!”

        2. I still don’t understand the logic of kicking kids off of school-sponsored teams or clubs as a result of misconduct. If the kids are drinking or doing drugs, it’s all the more reason that they should be engaged in sports, music, or other curricular activities. Kicking them off of the team is like giving up on them for no good reason. These are the kids who NEED support, why cut it off.

          For the record, I’m graduated from PHS about ten years ago and dozens of my family members were killed in the holocaust, so I have a little bit of perspective on both sides of this.

          A stupid, insensitive drinking game shouldn’t have long-term consequences. Don’t kick them off their teams and clubs!

          1. Well, the school has a policy about alcohol and drug use and participation on teams. I guess if you get caught on social media, you will pay the price. I think the policy goes to the issue of wanting the athletes to be leaders. Clearly they are not.

    3. Consider the factors that caused this, which include society’s curriculum for adolescence. Do you really think these kids would be focused on the holocaust in a basement, if adults didn’t push that material on them before they were ready to sort it out alone? The school & the parents have used very poor judgment… then, the kids are left to sort out all that bad judgement. Please also consider backing off your rush to punish those who are just boys without guidance.

  6. Police in other places have arrested teenagers for underage drinking based upon photos posted on social media. The drinking, or at least possession of alcohol, is illegal. Perhaps the Princeton police should investigate.

    1. Of course they should. And they should investigate the drinking game as a Hate Crime because that’s exactly what it is. I can’t believe the way people think they deserve special treatment because they are our coddled, sensitive, spoiled & special Princeton boys. No one is above the law. But let’s see if the police have the ethics and the courage to act.

  7. This is not just a drinking problem or a parental supervision problem or a school supervision problem this is a “my world view problem” . When you make small a great suffering of millions of people you are a bully or bully material. If genocide is something to be amused at try riding in a cattle car to a death camp or sitting in the door of no return or walking through the killing fields or living and being bombed and having to run to another land like the Sryian

  8. The PHS curriculum offers material like Eli Wiesel’s Night & other weighty presentations about the holocaust, to teach 14 to 15 year olds about the horrors of prejudice & supremacy movements. It’s heavy material for boys going through hormonal shifts, introduced at a time when adolescents need solid support & guidance from healthy adults to interpret the fear, horror & meaning in it. Without that support, it’s understandable that kids might make a joke of this material to reduce the tension of it. It’s also completely adolescent that they posted their failed attempt to incorporate this material into their lives with sensitivity. What’s sad is that the parents of these boys are so disengaged that they’re only providing beer & a finished basement to entertain those who will someday take their place on this planet. Those khakis, symbol of the leisure class, are perfectly worn by a youth who will grow to suppress others as he plays out racist pong with other adults in the real world someday. The kids are adolescent & need the support of every kind adult in our community. The parents keeping the incubator for supremacy warm & cozy are the ones we really need to worry about. Pray that the parents have an awakening about their role & as a community let’s help those boys grow into fine men if the parents won’t.

    1. Dont punish these young people?
      Those kids are more than old enough to know right from wrong. They should be expelled and the parents, worse. Underage drinking is illegal. I have raised 4 kids in Princeton and they could never have participated in something like that and I would have never allowed high schoolers to play drinking games in my basement. There is culpability all over the place here.

      1. Understand how you feel. My kids called me anytime they arrived at a party with drinking & asked me to pick them up…it happened way too many times in this town. I’ve never allowed drinking, my kids don’t use or abuse any substances, & had plenty of kids hanging out here, so I know it’s possible… but it definitely took communication. The parents of the boys in the video need help. They deserve to be labeled for abandoning their role as parents & not putting put energy into healthy family building. Their kids need support to understand right from wrong, before they graduate. Can that ‘support” be positive?…. Does it always have to be called “punishment” that ruins boys’ futures? That’s what I wonder about.

        1. Are you just doing a Ken M.-style troll now? Because if you are, A+. If you’re not, do you also think that anyone under 18 shouldn’t be left home alone for more than ten minutes?

        2. Again I think those kids- be they boys or girls- were old enough to know what they were doing was abhorrent and wrong, reckless, sickening… Can’t find enough words to express my disgust with the whole scenario. Yes, I think severe consequence is in order for all involved- kids and parents.

        3. “The boys need help.” “The parents need help.” Guess what? The boys are 18 or almost 18. The parents are older. “Gee, Officer Krupke, society made me do it”?

          What they need isn’t help. They need, and should get, jail cells. They all broke the law. They put others lives in danger. They participated in what is known as a Hate Crime.

    2. As a young person, I think you are plainly wrong. I have cousins younger than these students who were fully capable of handling material like Diary of Anne Frank and visits to the Holocaust Museum. If you raise your children with the idea that they can’t handle tough material, they will never be emotionally prepared to actually handle material that isn’t fluff. The Holocaust is a tough subject for anyone to process, but if we teach children from a young age to treat others with respect and kindness, and we show them from a young age what can happen when you dehumanize others, perhaps we will have a more perceptive youth. So yes, you do punish these children. You punish them so that they learn to value the lives lost in the Holocaust and not minimize it in a simple drinking game. Adolescents are not, we are always in need of consequences for poor judgments.

      1. I wrote “don’t EXCESSIVELY punish” & am not suggesting no consequences for the students. If the punishment of boys who posted the game was decided by their peers, I think your generation would understand and weigh all factors well & make the right decision. You are right that many young people today are mature & capable. But, what about the parents of the boys? It would be great if the police investigated the adults who hosted the game, to determine if they support underage drinking. After seeing so many posts here demanding severe punishments only for the boys, I wanted to write about other areas that may need attention. My kids have handled plenty of really tough stuff really well & are very successful, but I have always been available, reachable, & ready to help them if needed.

      2. Beautifully said. My son brought this whole incident to my attention- in horror. He’s 16.

      3. It is wonderful that a young person has so much more compassion and intelligence than some of the supposed adults posting here. Very well said, YoungInsight.

      4. YougInsight, As a Holocaust victims’ grand-nephew and survivors’ child, thank you.

    3. I wear khakis, sometimes. And as I compose this comment I am in my finished basement.

      I was unaware that those two attributes bespoke privilege.

      The khakis are old and my basement needs painting. Does that make it less bad?

      Gee whiz Thorsten Veblen. Get a grip.

  9. Kids will be kids and will do stupid shit. Posting it to social media was dumb and the nature of the game was insensitive. But calling a bunch of high school students out in a story for a town paper is just petty… isn’t there anything more interesting to report on? Let parents and teachers handle this matter. Everyone else needs to find something else to be this interested in.

  10. There is plenty of underage drinking in Princeton and surrounding communities. I do not understand how these parents who are well aware allow their HS children to drink at home. I know several parents who have said “I’d rather they drink at home”. It is illegal, so they are modeling behavior that it is ok to break the law.

    Even though most people think Princeton is a diverse neighborhood…it is not. Very few minorities can afford to live here and the diversity of the population is the students and faculty, and a small neighborhood that is being gentrified as we speak. If parents do not display prejudice where will the children learn it?
    It is not up to the school or the police to monitor and teach these kids….It is the sole responsibility of the parents….that is why I believe the parents should be held responsible. Hopefully, in the future there may be some sort of fine to be paid for allowing illegal activity in the home.

    Yes, I am a parent. My underage daughter had been invited to several parties where she knew alcohol would be available, & the parents knew. She did not go to the parties where she knew this would happen.
    Let’s hope the young people use better judgement than their parents in the future.

  11. This really isn’t that big of a deal… Kids everywhere drink underage. Maybe the theme is a bit insensitive but it’s not like they’re parading around with swastika emblazoned flags and hats, they literally just made a nazi vs Jews drinking game. Leave it to Princeton moms to get so up in arms over something so little. There’s bigger things going on right now.

    1. If you graduated from PHS and this is your entire take, your parents should ask for a refund on their school taxes. There are bigger things going on… than what, normalizing bigotry and genocide? We’re talking about what’s going on in our small pond here, and it’s not “so little.”

    2. Sorry Princeton Grad, but the joke they made was worse than parading around with swastika-emblazoned flags and hats. Do you even know who Anne Frank was? Do you know her age at the time of her death? Do you know what happened to her? Do you know who did it to her? Do you really think the Holocaust is something “so little”? If so, you are another person the Princeton schools failed utterly in teaching civics, morality and tolerance.

    3. No. Kids everywhere do not drink. This is the attitude that is the root cause of this problem, and it’s the kids who will pay the price.

  12. Two thoughts come to mind after reading this article and the comments.

    First, thank God that most teenage morons survive their idiot stage to become thoughtful adults. (I’d like to think I did, but my wife question it.) Let’s hope this turns out to be the case for these boys.

    Second, while I question how the parents of these kids would knowingly permit the drinking, I wonder how they would explain it? I’ll let my kids have a sip of a glass of wine if I am having it with dinner but I can’t imagine letting my kids’ teenage friends drink alcohol at my house.

  13. One of the kids lost his college scholarship because he participated. I leave it to you to decide whether that is just punishment…

    1. I’ll bet the first runner-up who now gets the scholarship and *didn’t* do these things thinks it’s pretty just. So do I.

    2. It is hard to believe that this is true as this only went live last night? Schools don’t work that quickly.

    3. Its well known that there is a behavioral expectation to receive a scholarship. Look at Michael Phelps taking a hit from a bong. How many millions of endorsement dollars of did he lose because of this? These kids must have known that the picture was taken and published. If kids want to get away with something, they should make that pictures are not taken. Lets see of the other boys and girls that were at this party are outed too.

    4. This is untrue. No action has been decided by the administration and no colleges have been notified. Don’t listen to your children’s gossip!

  14. I used to be a high schooler. I used to do stupid stuff similar to this. Countless offensive jokes and pictures. Stuff that I would find horribly offensive and poor taste today. I’m just lucky social media was barely beginning to crop up back then.

    High schoolers find things with ‘shock value’ funny. They _know_ that this is offensive and in terrible taste. That’s the point. That’s why it is funny to them. When you are in high school, doing something ‘random’ is funny.

    They haven’t matured enough to fully associate the ‘horrible event’ they learned about to the actual real-life horrible event that destroyed lives and deeply upsets people. They don’t realize the consequences of their actions. And they lack the finesse that an adult professional comedian might have to tackle these issues, so they make offensive and stupid “LOL HOLOCAUST” and “LOL RAPE” jokes.

    This isn’t an excuse, they should of course be punished by their parents or school, but this isn’t newsworthy. This isn’t a group of individuals with power or influence over anyone. They are individual kids doing a stupid thing they thought was funny in their parents’ basement. Let them move on.

    1. I could get behind a lot of that – but that all this, including drinking, happened on at least one adult’s watch, is inexcusable. IMO, the kids need at a minimum some sort of counseling, and the parents need prosecution.

      1. For the drinking, its a common occurrence. Same kids every week, and what about the kids not in the picture? Lets not categorize this as a one time event.

      2. What makes you think any adults knew anything about this? The article says nothing of the sort.

        1. Were the parents blind and deaf? This happened in their house on a school night. Come on.

          Although, the possibility that the parents might try to hang the kids completely out to dry is an interesting one, if that’s a trial balloon you’re floating.

          1. Trial balloon? Paranoid much? Bottom line is, as I surmised, you have no evidence the parents had any idea about any of this, just your supposition. Thanks for clarifying.

            1. Do you often have no idea what is going on in your basement, particularly when it involves at least 8 teens and several cases of recyclable Coors Light cans?

              Thanks for clarifying.

              I’ll amend trial balloon to trial defense.

            2. Sorry, Randolph Mantooth, but you didn’t understand Liz Winslow’s comment. I’ll try to spell it out in simple words you can understand.

              This happened in the parents’ house on a school night. So there are only two possibilities:

              1. The parents were home & knew what was going on, or didn’t want to know & played deaf & dumb. Now they are letting their kids hang out to dry by not taking responsibility for what happened on their watch.

              2. The parents, taking no responsibility for their kids at all, left them alone unmonitored long enough to have a DRINKING PARTY. Though there would have been plenty of cars in front of the house, they somehow had no clue.

              WHICH DO YOU THINK IT WAS?

              1. I have been advised by a local parent who seems to know quite a bit about this situation that it didn’t occur on a school night and that no parents were home at the time. So there’s that. I’m not really sure how it’s supposed to improve the narrative, given that the boys still got cases of beer into a private house for consumption over a bit of Holocaust mockery and no adults were on site to supervise a gaggle of teens, but far be it from me to leave a potential inaccuracy in my posts uncorrected.

                1. Well what do you know? Next time perhaps you’ll wait for the facts before posting ugly and unfounded accusations against other people. Lesson learned, one hopes.

                  1. What do I know? More than I’ve been posting. Go ahead and chew on that for a bit, since apparently you know quite a bit, somehow, about this story. But, moving on.

                    Based on this correction – if it is correct, vs. the first version I heard – I still see parents allowing unsupervised kids drink liquor that *somebody* obtained for them illegally, and play anti-Semitic games to boot. This of course showcases the fantastic parenting that had happened up till that point, and the terrific decision to leave kids capable of this unsupervised with alcohol. So no, it doesn’t do much to improve the story. It alters chiefly extraneous details.

                    Would you like to threaten to sue me again though? That made you sound super-reasonable, you know. Alternatively, since you insinuate you are in possession of mitigating information, I encourage you to post it here for all to see.

                    1. I’m not even sure how to respond to you, given your bizarre predilection to perceive things that aren’t there. You certainly have an active imagination, whether it regards the parents of the kids involved or my posts. I have threatened to sue nobody. I have insinuated no special knowledge of anything. I said it below, I’ll say it again: I know nobody involved in this, I have no information, exculpatory or otherwise. I simply pointed out that you were making accusations based on no actual knowledge or reporting, merely self-righteous hysteria. And, interestingly, it turned out I was right, and you came out looking like a total chump.

                    2. 1) suing – you posted this, yesterday: “”Actually, I think it’s folks who are throwing around unsupported
                      accusations that need to be worried about a defense. I’d tread carefully
                      if I were you”” hm, sounds like a threat to me!
                      2) Per you, I came out looking like a chump over 1) erring on day of the week and 2) and parents deciding to clear out and not offer any supervision *at all* versus being on site? I understand that you believe the beer, the kids, and the games teleported to the house without any adult being the wiser, but that’s tough to swallow.

                      I don’t think I’m the one “chump” applies to. Because if you’re running around giving free and inaccurate libel advice for kicks, you need to get a life.

                      You are really, really bad at inserting yourself into stories. Peace out.

              2. Well said. The only scenario that would work for Randolph Mantooth is parents away for the weekend, kids somehow got beer and had party without permission where “Alcoholocaust” was played and Snapchatted, and all this in a room Jamaica said in her original post was well-known. Riiiiiiight. But hey, let’s say that’s the truth for the sake of argument. They’ve still raised kids with a stunning lack of judgment and sensitivity. So, yeah, tough to muster sympathy for the parents under *any* scenario. and that is the main point here: how do you raise kids capable of this? Maybe these “interested bystanders” should spend more time on introspection and less time worrying about whether they can sue over comments in an online news article, for heaven’s sake.

    2. You’re right. This isn’t an excuse. And you’re right that they should of course be punished by the parents or school. But you’re very wrong that this isn’t newsworthy. And your failure to understand that means that you are part of the problem. Because even though you did it yourself & now claim to realize it was wrong, you don’t really think it was wrong at all. You may have matured somewhat, but you haven’t “matured enough to fully” understand the deeper sickness in the community, and utterly lax civic & moral standards to which Princeton is holding its kids. This is an indication of a much deeper problem, which you seem to half-grasp yourself. Keep grappling with it. You’ll mature more.

      1. This isn’t a Princeton-specific problem, kids do this kind of stuff everywhere. It’s horrible and the world would obviously be better off if they didn’t do this, but kids of every generation do insensitive and terrible things as they get to middle/high school age. Teenagers, as a whole, are awful people. And again, they SHOULD be punished and made clear as to _why_ it is so terrible. That’s 100% without a doubt.

        The reason it shouldn’t be newsworthy is because it has the potential to literally *ruin a person’s life*. Just for being a stupid teenager doing a very-stupid-and-offensive thing in their parents basement while someone captured it on camera.

        This quickly evolves into nothing but ‘outrage porn’. Planet Princeton picks it up, then Gawker picks that up, then CNN, then these kids lose their college admission, get their internship application denied, can’t work in certain job fields, 10 years later their future dates google them and dump them, etc.

        Teenagers should of course be held accountable – but not to the same standard as grown adults and politicians. The parents and school should handle this – not the media and self-righteous anonymous online commenters.

  15. Shout out to the parents who decided to go to Planet Princeton and tattle on these kids,
    very necessary:/! What if it were your kid?

    1. If it were my kid, anon, I would be ashamed that I was such a terrible parent that I never told my child about the Holocaust or drunken driving. How about you? I take it you let your kids drink and drive, and like to make jokes about the murder of millions of Jews, blacks, gypsies and gays? It probably WAS your kid! You really don’t get it.

  16. I know these kids. I know their parents, and to be honest – apple, tree. Not surprised knowing parties involved. This does not reflect all kids at PHS. But athletes, yes. Peer leaders, yes, considering they are pulled from athlete group. And they have misguided parents. Sorry. It’s true.

  17. What a joke, these parents should feel ashamed for reporting this to the news and the girl that wrote the article should mind her own business and maybe just delete the person off snapchat if what they post offends you. Typical Princeton Bull

      1. Cam, those who are offended are “wetting their pants” because a bunch of kids know or care so little about the Holocaust, and the murder of millions of innocent people, that they would drink heartily to it? Even though those drunks were at least four years under the drinking age & could have hit someone in your family in their cars on the way home? Way to go, Adolf.

    1. God forbid the word go out that kids are making jokes about a girl who was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp while they get sh*tfaced drunk, then get in their cars & drive home drunk! How would you feel, Grow Up, if one of these little fascist drunkards had run over one of your family members on the way home? You too need a trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

    2. You are saying that just because you don’t care about your future, you children’s future, and american’s future.

  18. In line with the majority of the comments to this article, I propose a community stoning committee. Whenever anyone does something offensive, in the opinion of a committee member, we will track them down and stone them until dead. Tough luck if the offensive act was committed by stupid teenagers who have yet to have impulse control and developed, mature brains. Tough luck if the offensive act was committed by stupid teenagers and best dealt with by their parents. As a result of the efforts of the stoning committee our school taxes will be significantly reduced because studies have shown that all teenagers do stupid things that are bound to offend someone. Of course, those throwing the stones for the stoning committee have never done something that offends anyone. A win-win, except for the teenagers who have yet to sufficiently mature enough to make smart choices a majority of the time.

    As an alternative to the stoning committee, perhaps we can hold off on being too judgmental of these teens until and unless we are completely free of committing stupid acts of any sort at any time in our life.

    1. As a local teen I for one resent the patronizing tone you take in that poorly constructed allegory. These individuals are men old enough to serve in our country’s military and sure as hell are able to understand the gravity of such a horrific event as the Holocaust. Don’t minimize their role in this simply because they’re still in high school. Sure I agree that it was a mistake but it is ridiculous to simply give them a slap on the wrist and send them on their way just because we’re all guilty of doing things we weren’t proud of. Only if they’re forced to confront their peers and community with the guilt of their actions will they learn for the future.

      1. By gee, by gollie David. Nothing will happen to these kids. Yes Kids. It will harm their chances of getting into a university. I tell ya, the parents need to be confronted for being so blind.

        1. @disqus_PHSZ2xupxS:disqus, well, you obviously didn’t get into an adequate university because your grammar and punctuation are as bad as your thinking is muddled. Take some night classes before you pontificate about “getting into a university” again.

    2. “Best dealt with by their parents.” OK. The same parents who permitted an underage party with alcohol where anti-Semitic drinking games were played? Gee, that sounds like a foolproof plan.

    1. Just wish it would go away, Jay? “Chill out and move on”? These boys were making jokes about Anne Frank, a girl their age who was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp. They thought it was funny to get drunk (which they are at least four years too young to do) while laughing about her death and the Holocaust. Perhaps it doesn’t seem worthy of anyone’s time to you that these coddled, upper-middle-class kids thought this cool to do? You want to “move on”? This is of course exactly the kind of thinking that allowed Nazism & fascism to rise in the first place, and it’s deplorable. This cannot be made public enough, and we need to analyze it until we get answers. Obviously, room must be made in the budget for every student in Princeton to participate in a field trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. And I think you should be one of the adult chaperones, as you are obviously overdue for a visit yourself.

      1. Hey you hear the hilarious joke about the Nazi and Anne Frank? Its supper funny and deliciously insensitive. I wonder if that joke was the one that facilitated Hitlers rise? You think its in the museum?

          1. Man sorry. Everyone is made of glass these days…..my bad B. Its kinda funny that you nit wits are worried about the name of the game instead of the drinking. Ever played one of those? Yep …you guessed it. You get smashed.

    2. Let’s make a little agreement: First you have almost half your people annihilated systematically after centuries of non-stop persecution, and then we’ll think about “chilling out”.

      Antisemitic waste of space.

  19. This would’ve been better handled in the relative privacy of the school. Have an entire-school assembly, suspend the kids if necessary…no need to call out a bunch of idiot 16 year olds in the media.

  20. I’ll say it again, Anonymous. Just want to wish it away because it’s “petty”? “Everyone else needs to find something else to be interested in”? Why so quick to sweep this aside, my friend? These boys were making jokes about Anne Frank, a girl their age who was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp. They thought it was funny to get drunk (which they are at least four years too young to do) while laughing about her death and the Holocaust. Then they drove home drunk, and could have run over someone you love. Coddled, upper-middle-class kids thought this cool to do but you just dismiss it as “stupid sh*t”? It’s not even interesting enough to discuss? Yours is the kind of thinking that allowed Nazism & fascism to rise in the first place, and it’s deplorable. This cannot be made public enough, and we need to analyze it until we get answers. Obviously, room must be made in the budget for every student in Princeton to participate in a field trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. And I think you should be one of the adult chaperones, as you are obviously overdue for a visit yourself.

  21. The real issue is here is the absolutely unacceptable cultural appropriation of the Buddhist faith. Had the swastika been placed in the proper orientation it would be different.

  22. And as I read the absurd commentary here, I see the insanity goes on…”chill out and move on”?? what is important is the proper orientation of the swastika symbol? – I’m sure the Buddhists were waiting for you to come to their defense.
    If the young people in this country, and their parents, have become so insensitive they believe this ‘game’ is innocuous, if they believe it’s time for the Jewish people of the world to “move on”, and chill out about the Holocaust – America is in very big trouble. These unaware, uncaring, imbecile children will be the folks in power in the not too distant future. Someone is raising a bunch of psychotics, and we will all be their fodder.

    1. Someone needs to send you back to the loony bin if that’s truly how you feel. Dark humor has its purposes, it’s used as a coping mechanism. These kids are not neo-nazis they are kids playing a game. I bet your one of those people who thinks Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto should be banned as well.

  23. Let’s talk for a moment about how this comments section (and other comments sections elsewhere on the web, much less comments made in person) focus quite a bit on Jamaica Ponder, and how she should never have posted this and had other motives, and yadda yadda yadda the boys, gasp, face consequences.

    Are you people even hearing yourselves talk? You’re complaining that a solo black girl should be punished for exposing hideous behavior by a group of rich white boys. Let that sink in for a moment.

      1. Why don’t you keep reading the comments – you’ll say that explored in depth by me and other people. I’ll wait.

      2. No Wannton, these kids set out to make a statement about Jewish people and to slander the Holocaust. I didn’t see it in the picture but there was surely a picture of Iran’s old president Ahmadinejad on the wall just to drive home the point. There is no way these kids were just playing beer pong.

      3. No Wannton, these kids set out to make a statement about Jewish people and to slander the Holocaust. I didn’t see it in the picture but there was surely a picture of Iran’s old president Ahmadinejad on the wall just to drive home the point. There is no way these kids were just playing beer pong.

    1. And, even worse, no one is thinking just how WONDERFUL it is that a young black girl felt she not only should, but COULD speak up for a group that is “not hers”.

      1. Look, the girl is obviously an attention seeker. Look at her blog. Regardless, the behavior of these kids is egregious. These kids are notorious and there are numerous social media posts of these same and many others in this high school at parties in their homes.

        1. Who cares if she’s got a brand and she’s promoting it? You’ve just described most successful people who’ve ever existed. Utterly irrelevant and a sideshow to distract from what the boys did, no matter how much rumor and innuendo about her motivations is thrown at her.

  24. As a PHS alum who lives in Europe, this is not a simple thing that can be brushed under the table with comments like “it should not be news” or “it should not have been reported” or “it is a family matter”. Anti-semitism is rampant in Europe. Jews are moving out of Europe in record numbers. Jews who are not leaving Europe are scared. Why is that? Because unlike with any other segment of society, when someone says “death to the Jews” they mean it.

    In Europe the actions of these PHS students is in the news today. At the same time, the Labour leader in the UK is being challenged to do more to fight anti-semistism in his political party. Throughout Europe there are often things blamed on Jews or Israel that have nothing at all to do with Jews or Israel but both are easy scapegoats for the ills of the world.

    For these reasons, this “game” is a very big deal, and these students have brought PHS and the town of Princeton into disgrace. Kudos to the young person who reported this, so it can be dealt with appropriately.

  25. why blur the faces in the photo? Once posted on-line, it is public.

    With the current political climate and rise of Donald Trump, these kind of episodes are not youthful pranks, but are reflective of a reply dangerous cultural moment.

    1. They’re still kids, and, unfortunately, their privacy is still necessary. Hopefully the root problem, why high schoolers were having an alcohol party, will be addressed more forcibly. Mix teenage entitlement with alcohol and this is what you get. Could the participants possibly get some community service time?

  26. My kids went through neighboring Hopewell CHS a decade ago and kids were suspended from sports teams for far less significant, egregious, or publicized behavior.

  27. Shouldn’t there be some consequences for the parents that allowed an under-aged drinking party?

  28. However tasteless you may find this, I see no reason to believe the high school students intended any malice with the arrangement of the cups.

    Truth be told, it looks like an interesting pong configuration.

      1. Well…that’s a tiny bit of a stretch. I’m sure i’m way out of line here but i’m going with kids being goofy. Its probably not the case that Justin’s or anyone else comments led to the game.

      2. Sorry Captain Justice, I will try to be a better person in the future and make sure I never think to myself, “well, this really harmed nobody until the press put it out there, and I might have done something stupid like this myself in high school.” We cannot all be Captain Justice

        1. That you graduated from high school but believe that antisemitism, trivializing the Holocaust & teen binge drinking harm nobody speaks very poorly of what education you received, @justintimecompiler:disqus.

      3. Whats wrong with “games” like this? It happened in history if anything these kids should be given extra credit (Had this not been done 5 years ago and it was actually their idea). They ripped this off the internet. The bigger deal here is underage drinking, but you all have lil ears and lil eyes and don’t understand dark humor. Let me break it down for you. Sometimes people need to laugh about awful things that happen to feel better. Its a coping mechnisam. If you’ve ever had anything fucked up happen to you’d understand.

  29. The problem of drunk high school students not appreciating the gravity of the Holocaust can be addressed by their school. The problem of the community tolerating, and as can be seen here condoning, under-aged drinking is a crisis. What are we going to do about that?

    1. playing beer pong is different than swilling down a bottle of vodka on a dare, or getting in a car with a drunk driver, or taking painkillers while drinking…no one dies from beer pong.

      1. Unless, of course, they get behind a wheel. Perhaps you’d like to be introduced to the families?

      2. This is the most appalling post I’ve seen in many a day. How did those kids get home? I doubt they were driven home by the adults who let them get drunk as hell in their house. MAYBE one or two rode home on a bicycle, but somehow I suspect drunk driving was involved. Surely this would have occurred to you, @tom_braun:disqus, if you’d thought for even a moment about the connotations.

  30. Yom Hashoa (Holocaust Remembrance Day) begins on May 4. This article reminds me why its still important in 2016.

    1. Beer pong reminded you of this? This article made me want to have a beer.

      Oh right…were supposed to be ultra sensitive. Sorry dude.

        1. What is this education you speak of? Is that were people learn to be pointlessly sensitive?

          1. Apparently any sensitivity at all is pointless to the like of bes123. Makes you wonder if they’re trolling or just that much of an asshat.

            1. Ha! I’m definitely trolling a bit. Its beer pong people…played by kids. Huffing and puffing about the Nazi atrocities is kinda over the top.

  31. Funny how when it’s white boys in trouble, people think their privacy is paramount.

      1. Really? I’m pretty sure I called it into question before even Cpt_Justice did. Try to envision a white boy blowing the whistle on this behavior and then having all sorts of shade thrown at him that he was an attention-seeker and should be disciplined. On this angle we’ll never know for sure, but I have a tough time picturing it.

        I’ll say it again – for a town so incensed over Imani Perry’s provably non-racially-motivated traffic stop, where are all the social justice warriors now that there’s an actual problem for not one but two minority groups? Oh right – defending the person of color here would mean *not* aligning with the anti-Semitism that is becoming trendier every day.

        1. Are you insane? What are you talking about? Traffic stops? Shade? I am not following this at all. I thought we were talking beer pong?

          1. No, I’m not insane, but you apparently are ignorant about a national piece of news about race relations that happened recently in Princeton, and thus is relevant to this story if you can expand your focus past endless repetitions of “beer pong.” Why don’t you catch up, and try again? If you, by your own admission, can manage to stop trolling, of course. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dascham-vid-released-princeton-prof-imani-perry-arrest-article-1.2529327

          2. Heh – no, I’m not insane, but you apparently are ignorant about a story that made national news about race relations right here in Princeton a couple of months ago. Google Imani Perry. That story is eminently relevant to this one.

  32. I do nazi a problem. Games are games. Whats next we ban Axis and Allies? Cards against humanity? Secret Hitler? Nazi Zombies? The list endless. Its simple if this offends you move on.

    These kids dont have swatsikas tattooed to there foreheads. They are not neo nazis… They are playing a game. A game team David could theoritically win beating the Nazis.

    They didn’t even come up with this idea. They saw it on the internet as it was posted about 5 years ago on 4Chan.

    If this offends you I suggest you stay away from the internet. This is very lite dark human. I could only imagine if you all visited a site with actual dark humor.

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