Private $31,000-a-year Las Vegas high school recalls yearbook after senior used quote from US Nazi Party founder on its pages
- A Las Vegas prep school had to recall its yearbook after it was revealed that a senior had used a George Rockwell quote
- The quote, “Being ready to die is one of life’s great secrets,” was originally said by Rockwell, a notorious Hitler sympathizer
- “We have let down not only our student-led yearbook staff, but our community as a whole,” the school’s principal and board president wrote.
A private prep school in Las Vegas was forced to recall its yearbook after administrators discovered that a quote used by a senior was originally said by the founder of the US Nazi Party.
Summerlin’s Meadows School, which pays families $31,000 per child per year, requested that students return their 2022-2023 yearbooks because of a quote on a senior page attributed to George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party.
The Las Vegas Journal Review reported the page with a photo of the student next to the quote, “Being ready to die is one of life’s great secrets.”
The student who used the quote has not been named and it is unclear if they will be allowed to participate in the graduation.
Las Vegas prep school The Meadows School had to recall its yearbook after discovering a student had inserted a quote from the founder of the American Nazi Party
George Lincoln Rockwell was a notorious Hitler sympathizer and founder of the American Nazi Party
The student submitted the saying with an anonymous attribution, but it’s actually from a 1966 Rockwell interview conducted by “Roots” author Alex Haley,
Rockwell was a famous Holocaust denier and an unashamed promoter of Adolf Hitler’s work.
He was head of the American Nazi Party from its founding in 1959 to the end of his life in 1967.
On the page, the student, whose identity remains unknown, also answered the question “How can I influence others?” with ‘Take over the country.’
The student also mentioned their interests as politics, history and human biology.
It’s unclear if the student will be allowed to participate in graduation from the Meadows School, which was founded in 1984 by current Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman.
Tony Huang, the father of another Meadows senior, told Scripps News Las Vegas this week “that the school needs to do a better job of checking what’s in the yearbook.”
He added that he still supports the private school community, saying, “Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. And as long as they learn from this lesson, it’s good.”
The Summerlin School, founded by current Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman, charges $31,000 per year per child
The school’s interim principal, Claude Grubair, and board president Matthew Chilton issued a fawning statement apologizing for the oversight and for not helping “our students navigate between what is morally right and wrong.”
A spokeswoman for the school, Lauren Walker, said the school is investigating the incident.
“We are collecting our yearbooks because of a quote that was included with an anonymous source that goes against our school’s core values. We take this very seriously and cannot provide further details until our investigation is complete,” she wrote in a statement on Thursday.
Last week, the school’s interim principal Claude Grubair and board president Matthew Chilton released a statement informing the community that the school was consulting with multiple groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, over the incident.
“Our job is to help our students navigate what is morally right and wrong, and we have failed not only our student-led yearbook staff, but our community as a whole,” the pair wrote.