Catholic High School Girls Busted for Playing Swastika Beer Pong

A group of students at a Missouri Catholic high school got busted for playing "Nazi beer pong" at a party and have managed to dodge expulsion, walking away with a day of in-school suspension and the right to attend an upcoming dance, the Kansas City Star reports.

Alumnae of the all-girls St. Teresa's Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, have pressured the school to come down on the students after photos of their patently offensive game of pong surfaced on Snapchat. One image reportedly depicts Solo cups arranged in the shape of a Swastika on a ping-pong table, captioned with "girls night!"

But the school has insisted it won't suspend or expel the students, deciding instead to slap them with a "reflection day"—essentially, a day of in-school suspension—after an internal investigation determined they'd been drinking underage. According to the Star, the girls involved had to sit out of a few athletic practices and other extracurriculars, but were able to play in major games. They'll also still be allowed to attend an upcoming school dance.

"Many of you have questioned the consequences and called for expulsion of the students involved. While we respect your opinion, expulsion is the wrong solution in this situation," St. Teresa's president Nan Bone wrote on the school's Facebook page. "Our job as educators is to use these incidents, when they occur, as opportunities to teach our young women what it means to care about their dear neighbor. We have more work to do."

The young ladies of St. Teresa's aren't the first high schoolers to engage in this particularly offensive version of the classic drinking game. Students in New Jersey and Atlanta have been busted for participating in "Jews v. Nazis" beer pong, typically played by stacking cups in the shape of a Swastika against those in a Star of David. The more you dig into the game, the more offensive it gets: Players sometimes dub it "Alcoholocaust" or "Holocaust Pong." The Jewish team apparently has a chance to pull an "Anne Frank"—hiding a single cup from their opponents—and the other gets an "Auschwitz," allowing them to make an opponent sit out for a set period of time.

Alumnae of St. Teresa's have slammed the school's verdict on the girls caught playing, calling the decision to hand them a "reflection day" "disheartening," "coddling," and "against the core values of St. Teresa's."

"I loved my years at STA and to be frank I received harsher punishments because my uniform shirt wasn't tucked in than these young girls received for participating in bigoted hate speech," alumna Colleen Hinken wrote on Facebook. "I'm sure a day of reflection will really make them understand the gravity of such a heinous act… ridiculous."

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