Gesture associated with white supremacy slips into Tacoma high school yearbook. Review underway
Wilson High School in Tacoma is looking to strengthen its yearbook review process after a hand signal associated with white supremacy appeared in its 2020 yearbook.
The school received multiple complaints after people discovered the photo, which shows a student making an OK gesture by touching a thumb and forefinger together. The gesture has been associated with white power and white supremacy groups.
Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Dan Voelpel said the school principal, Bernadette Ray, reached out to the family of the student in the photo.
The family told the principal that the student was not displaying the white power symbol but was playing the “circle game,” a game where a person makes a circle with their thumb and forefinger, resembling an OK gesture, typically below waist level. If someone sees the gesture, they can punch the person making the symbol in the arm.
“Nevertheless, that photograph shouldn’t have been included in the yearbook,” Voelpel told The News Tribune on Thursday. “It’s not right, and that symbol has been associated with white power.”
Voelpel said the school was first made aware of the photo on Wednesday and began looking into the situation.
“During the (yearbook) review nobody noticed that the picture had the student making that hand gesture,” Voelpel said.
About 250 yearbooks have been distributed. Staff covered the student’s hand with stickers in any remaining yearbooks.
Typically, students assemble the school yearbook, which is then reviewed by the yearbook advisor.
Staff are now reviewing the yearbook protocol for added layers of review to ensure a similar situation doesn’t happen again, Voelpel said.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 4:53 PM.
