Fire them all, West Virginia governor says of cadets who gave Nazi salute in photo
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice agrees that the cadets who did an apparent Nazi salute in a class photo should be fired.
The cadets were part of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Academy Class 18 and did the salute in their graduation photo, according to the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.
The department was made aware of the photo on Nov. 27 after the Class 18 graduation in Glenville, according to the department’s Cabinet Secretary Jeff Sandy.
Based on a report on an investigation into the photo, Sandy recommended that all of the cadets who participated in the salute be fired along with a staff member didn’t report the photo.
Sandy also recommended that four instructors who saw but didn’t report the photo be suspended without pay.
Gov. Justice announced Monday that he has approved Sandy’s recommendations.
“As I said from the beginning, I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class 18 in the strongest possible terms,” Justice said in a release. “I also said that this act needed to result in real consequences – terminations and dismissals. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch in any agency of State government.”
Two academy trainers and one cadet had previously been fired and 34 had been suspended without pay, according to a Dec. 4 release from the department.
An investigation found that the cadets started doing the salute as a “sign of respect” to Instructor Karrie Byrd, according to an executive summary report of the investigation from the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Commissioner Betsy Jividen.
Several refused to participate because they “recognized it for its historical implications,” according to the report.
Byrd told investigators she was “completely unaware” of the gesture’s “historical or racial implications,” and that others witnessed the gesture and didn’t say anything, the memo says, but other sources “heavily contradicted” her statements during the investigation.
The investigation found that Byrd “encouraged,” “reveled in” and “at time reciprocated” the gesture.
She told the cadets to do the “Hail Byrd” salute for the photograph, the investigation found, and multiple cadets said the photo had to be taken several times because not everyone was making the gesture.
Ten of the cadets refused to take part until Byrd told them to do so, according to the investigation, and seven of those held up a closed fist instead of an open hand.
The ten cadets said they only did the gesture because they feared not graduating as a result of disobeying their instructor, the memo says.
Byrd reportedly stated that the cadets did the salute because she’s “a hard-ass like Hitler,” the investigation found.
Lawrence Messina, spokesperson for the department, told McClatchy News in an email that those who have been fired or “recommended for termination” are not being identified.
Messina did confirm that Byrd is no longer a state employee.
The investigation found other photos on social media, one of which featured members of the class and Byrd “holding their hands horizontally below their nose,” which the investigation recognized as a gesture “used to satirically reference Hitler,” the memo says.
An investigation into these photos is ongoing, according to the memo.
“We have a lot of good people in our Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety,” Gov. Justice said in the release. “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.”
