Through the convention held for employees this week, Hanover County Public Colleges distributed T-shirts and convention supplies containing the brand, which the district says had been designed by considered one of its academics.
The brand was supposed “to signify 4 arms and arms greedy collectively — an emblem of unity for our all-county skilled studying convention. Nothing extra,” Michael Gill, superintendent of the district located north of Richmond, mentioned in an internet message.
“We’re deeply sorry for this error and for the feelings that the brand has evoked by its semblance to a swastika and, by extension, to the atrocities that had been dedicated underneath its banner,” Gill mentioned. “Unquestionably, we condemn something related to the Nazi regime within the strongest method attainable.”
Gill mentioned the apology comes after considerations concerning the emblem had been raised, and that the district understands that the brand “has deeply upset members of our employees and group who see the brand as resembling a swastika.”
Images of the shirt had been posted on the Hanover County Colleges Fb web page, in line with CNN affiliate WTVR, however have since been eliminated.
The pictures circulated broadly on social media and had been
reposted by
Rachel Levy, a public college advocate, guardian and Virginia Home of Delegates candidate working in 2023.
Final month, an elementary college in Georgia redesigned their college’s emblem for a second time after mother and father identified its resemblance to a swastika.
Daniel Staffenberg, chief government of the Jewish Neighborhood Federation of Richmond, mentioned he appreciated the college system’s fast response.
“In partnership with the college board, we’ll proceed to deal with this incident and be certain that Jewish college students, households, and all susceptible minorities unsettled by this emblem are represented within the cities and college methods they inhabit,” he mentioned in an internet assertion.
The group and its companions reached out to Gill by letter and plan on scheduling a gathering to debate subsequent steps in ensuring “the voice of Jewish college students and people of different minority faiths are heard and revered.”
The district serves about 17,000 college students, who’re on summer time break and are scheduled to renew courses September 6.
